Federal Government Extends Fishing Exemption to Vessel Permit Discharge Requirement

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Lafcadio Darling

As was previously discussed on this blog, fishing vessels and commercial vessels under 79 feet had enjoyed a 2-year exemption to the EPA's Vessel General Permit (VGP) requirement (except for ballast water discharge), but that exemption was due to expire on July 31, 2010.  On July 30, 2010 President Obama signed PL 111-215 into law, extending the moratorium for these vessels to December 18, 2013.  During that period, neither the EPA nor the states may require National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits incidental to the normal operation of fishing vessels of any size and other non-recreational vessels less than 79 feet in length. 

However, as with the previous exemption, this moratorium does not apply to ballast water discharges from vessels greater than or equal to 300 gross registered tons or with a ballast capacity of 8 cubic meters (2113 gallons) or more.  Operators of those vessels must submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) in accordance with EPA rules.

It seems that many in the industry were not aware of the VGP regime at the outset, and the expiration of the moratorium was causing concern that there would be widespread non-compliance.  The extension of this moratorium provides the EPA with time to study the problems of vessel discharges and craft adequate rules, and also provides the industry with time to become familiar with this permit program and plan for the future.  Nonetheless, the ballast discharge permit requirement remains in force, and the industry must ensure current compliance with these rules. 

 

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Ballast Water Discharge Requires Permit - Even for Fishing Vessels

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Lafcadio Darling

By John E. Lenker

On December 18, 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed the final version of the Vessel General Permit (VGP). The VGP was set for an effective date of December 19, 2008, but the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California signed an order that pushed the effective date to February 6, 2009. 

The VGP regulates discharges incidental to the normal operation of vessels operating in a capacity as a means of transportation.  The discharge types that are eligible for coverage under the VGP include: Ballast water; Bilge water; Deck washdown and runoff and above water line hull cleaning; anti-fouling leachate from antifouling hull coatings; aqueous film forming foam (AFFF); boiler/economizer blowdown; cathodic protection; chain locker effluent; firemain systems; freshwater layup; gas turbine wash water; greywater; and many others (the complete list is available under Section 1.2.2 at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/vessel_vgp_permit.pdf).

Notice of Intent (NOI) is required to be submitted to receive permit coverage. The notice is not required to be submitted for: recreational vessels, vessels that are less that 300 gross tons and less than 79 feet in length, fishing vessels (which fish for finfish, mollusks, crustaceans, and all other forms of marine animal and plant life, except marine mammals and birds), and do not have the capacity to hold or discharge more than 8 cubic meters of ballast water are not required to submit a Notice of Intent. This means that crab vessels that fill their crab tanks with seawater for ballast are required to file a NOI. Those vessels that are required to file a NOI are also required to maintain a ballast water management plan under Section 2.2.3.2 of the VGP permit information (link above). The plans are intended to be a condition to assure compliance under the Clean Water Act , 33 U.S.C. 1251 §402(a)(2).

The NOI can be filled out electronically at http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/vessels/vesselsenoi.cfm. The EPA encourages the use of the eNOI system as processing will be significantly faster than the paper system. The paper version is available at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/vessel_vgp_noi.pdf.

The EPA estimates that approximately 61,000 domestically flagged commercial vessels and approximately 8,000 foreign flagged vessels may be affected by this permit. States may have more stringent requirements than the EPA and are found in the VGP permit information under Section 6 (link above).

 
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