Vessel owners operating under International Maritime Organization regulations were given an additional two years in July to comply with Ballast Water Management Convention requirements. However, vessels operating in U.S. waters still must comply with Coast Guard regulations stricter than the IMO’s protocol.
At a meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), the group approved a new implementation schedule for meeting ballast water management (BWM) requirements only two months before the convention was supposed to enter into force in September. The new deadline extends the compliance deadline for treating ballast water discharge for about 40,000 existing ships.
Under the new plan, compliance is required at the first or second International Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) renewal survey after September 2017, subject to certain conditions. Existing vessels will be allowed to operate without retrofitting a BWM system through 2024, depending on the individual vessel’s IOPP survey. This measure extends the deadline by two years. Ships constructed after Sept. 8, 2017, must be compliant when delivered.
However, as the United States is not a signatory to the Ballast Water Management Convention, the Coast Guard issued a reminder that commercial vessels with ballast tanks operating in U.S. waters must comply with U.S. standards. Coast Guard investigations into ballast water discharges revealed that some vessel owners had received statements of compliance from the IMO and mistakenly believed the certificates also applied to operating in U.S. waters.
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