EPA Announces Vessel Discharge Final Rule
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan signed the final action rule September 20 for the Vessel Incidental Discharge National Standards of Performance and submitted it for publication in the Federal Register. The final rule’s effective date is 30 days after Federal Register publication.
However, as the American Waterways Operators (AWO) reminded its members in a recent newsletter, the new national standards of performance will not take effect until U.S. Coast Guard regulations governing the implementation, compliance and enforcement of the standards become final, effective and enforceable. The Coast Guard is required by the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA) to promulgate those regulations within two years. Until that time, vessels continue to be subject to the existing requirements of EPA’s 2013 Vessel General Permit and the Coast Guard’s ballast water requirements at 33 CFR Part 151 Subparts C and D.
The final rule adopts a number of exemptions and qualifications recommended by AWO.
The rule maintains AWO-supported exemptions from ballast water treatment requirements for vessels that are less than or equal to 3,000 gross tons that do not operate outside of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and for any non-seagoing, unmanned, unpowered barge that is not part of a dedicated vessel combination.
At AWO’s recommendation, the final rule also adds an exemption for discharges of ballast water at the same location that the ballast water originated, which will allow seagoing barges that cannot install ballast water treatment systems to use a tank-by-tank ballast water management strategy.
The final rule adopts AWO’s recommendation to permit barges to pump water from below deck, provided that contact with oily or toxic materials is minimized.
Also per AWO’s recommendations, the final rule permits discharges from fire protection equipment during testing, training, maintenance, inspection or certification activities as well as for secondary uses such as deck washdown, if the intake is drawn from the surrounding water or a potable water supply and does not contain additives. The proposed rule would have prohibited such discharges unless they were associated with a Coast Guard inspection.
The final rule also adopts AWO’s recommendation to limit graywater treatment requirements to vessels that are certificated to carry and have overnight accommodations for 15 or more persons. The proposed rule would have required any new vessel at or above 400 gross tons to install a graywater treatment system or hold untreated graywater for discharge to a pumpout facility or offshore.
Following AWO’s recommendation, EPA has removed from the federally protected waters list those waters that are protected solely for cultural or historical purposes, as opposed to conservation purposes.
The final rule confirms that EPA continues to consider biofouling as an incidental discharge, a guidance that AWO had encouraged that will also preempt any existing state biofouling laws and regulations.
AWO said it would hold a webinar “in the coming weeks” to review the final rule in detail. Details will be announced in a newsletter to members.
