Deadline to File for an Extension to the New York State Amendments to EPA Vessel General Permit Requirements is 30 June 2010

ABS customers operating in waters in and around New York State are reminded of the approaching 30 June deadline to request an extension of the application date of ballast water treatment technology requirements for their vessels.

The EPA Vessel General Permit (VGP), which went into force on 6 February 2009, was amended at the time of release by the New York State Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification for Commercial Vessel and Large Recreational Vessel General Permit (NYS Certification) stating that:

By not later than 1 January 2012, each vessel covered under the VGP that operates in New York waters, shall have a ballast water treatment system that meets the following standards, subject to the exceptions listed below:

(A) Standard for organisms 50 or more micrometers in minimum dimension: Any ballast water discharged shall contain less than one living organism per 10 cubic meters.

(B) Standard for organisms less than 50 micrometers in minimum dimension and more than 10 micrometers in minimum dimension: Any ballast water discharged shall contain less than one living organism per 10 milliliters.

(C) Standards for indicator microbes:

(i) Any ballast water discharged shall contain less than one colony-forming unit of toxicogenic Vibrio cholera (serotypes O1 and O139) per 100 milliliters or less than one colony-forming unit of that microbe per gram of wet weight of zoological samples;

(ii) Any ballast water discharged shall contain less than 126 colony-forming units ofescherichia coli per 100 milliliters; and

(iii) Any ballast water discharged shall contain less than 33 colony-forming units of intestinal enterococci per 100 milliliters.

The VGP identifies New York waters as the “tributaries, bays, harbors, inlets, coves, channels and other waterways within Lower and Upper New York Bay, Jamaica Bay, Raritan Bay, Newark Bay, Hudson River south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, Harlem River, East River, Gravesend Bay, Flushing Bay, Eastchester Bay, the Kills and Long Island Sound.”

The conditions of the VGP do not apply to vessels:

(i) that operate exclusively in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway System upstream of a line drawn from Cap-de-Rosiers to West Point, Anticosti Island and then to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River along a meridian of longitude 63 degrees West, or

(ii) operating exclusively within waters of New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, or

(iii) entering New York waters from ports of call within New Jersey and Connecticut waters which are included in the definition of "waters of New York Harbor and Long Island Sound," provided that the vessel has met the requirements of this condition prior to entering the waters of New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, or

(iv) that have met the requirements of condition #2 or condition #3, or

(v) that carry only permanent ballast water, all of which is in sealed tanks that are not subject to discharge, or

(vi) of the National Defense Reserve Fleet that are scheduled to be disposed of through scrapping or sinking.

More on the requirements for this region can be found in Section 6 of the Vessel General Permit document available on the EPA’s website.

As per the Vessel General Permit document, operators can file a petition for extension to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) provided they can demonstrate the following conditions.

 (1) there is a shortage in supply of the technology necessary to meet the limits set forth in this certification, or a vessel-specific engineering constraint, or other factor related to the availability and installation of technology beyond the vessel owner/operator’s control, that delays the technology being available and installed in time to comply with this standard;

(2) the unavailability of supply or installation constraint is the only reason the 1 January 2012 date cannot be met; and

(3) the vessel has exhausted all other options to comply with this standard.

Extension requests must be filed to the DEC no later than 30 June 2010 and should also indicate when the vessel will come into compliance with this deadline.   

Though industry trade organizations have addressed their concerns to the DEC of the inability for vessel operators to comply with the requirements based on the lack of suitable technologies, there is little likelihood of repeal and operators may wish to enter a petition on their own accord for extensions. 

ABS has been advised that the Chamber of Shipping of America (CSA) and INTERTANKO have drafted template petition letters and circulated them to their members. More information can be found on the CSA and INTERTANKO websites.