Coast Guard proposes rule to control “sweepings” on Great Lakes

Coast Guard proposes rule to control “sweepings” on Great Lakes

Coast Guard proposes rule to control “sweepings” on Great Lakes

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is proposing a rule that would encourage U.S. and foreign carriers on the Great Lakes to make voluntary use of measures to control and reduce the amount of dry cargo residue from cargo such as limestone, iron ore and coal that falls on a ship’s deck or within a ship’s unloading tunnels that ultimately may be swept into the Great Lakes.
   The rule was made public on Friday through a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, which also announces the availability of the draft environmental impact statement prepared in support of the proposed rule.
   The proposed rule would require Great Lakes bulk and dry cargo carriers to keep records of loading, unloading and sweepings of dry cargo residues.
   It “would encourage carriers to use control measures to reduce the amount of dry cargo residue entering the waters of the Great Lakes. The rule would continue to allow the discharge of non-toxic and non-hazardous bulk dry cargo residues in certain areas of the Great Lakes.”
   The Coast Guard said residues from cargo such as limestone, iron ore and coal are an operational waste and constitute garbage under regulations that implement the Act to Prevent Pollution from ships.
   If strictly enforced on the Great Lakes, those regulations would bring an end to the practice of cargo sweeping. However, since 1993, Great Lakes ships have operated under a Coast Guard “interim enforcement policy” that allow “incidental discharges” of non-toxic and non-hazardous dry cargo residues on the Great Lakes.
   That interim enforcement policy specified where dry cargo residue sweeping could and could not occur. Congressional legislation has extended the interim enforcement policy since 1998. The current extension, granted by Congress in 2004, expires Sept. 30.
   The draft environmental impact study identified many possible control measures, including some already in use on the Great Lakes, that can be used by shoreside cargo facilities or aboard ship.