MTI Alert: Upcoming NPDES Vessel General Permit Requirements
Do your vessels call or operate within the territorial waters of the United States? Two important requirements that may have escaped your notice when the US EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Vessel General Permit (VGP) regulations went into effect in February 2009.
The EPA NPDES Vessel General Permit regulations went into effect February 6, 2009. Along with routine, quarterly, dry-dock inspections there is a requirement to annually inspect every vessel greater than 79 feet being commercially operated within the US territorial waters. This includes barges as well as self propelled vessels. The comprehensive annual inspection requirements will vary from one vessel to another depending upon the configuration of each vessel. Additionally you must annually report all instances of noncompliance to the EPA at least once per year/
Since the program began 6 February 2009, the annual requirements are coming due . In an effort to simplify the annual inspection and reporting requirements, a number of companies are choosing to use the calendar year to set their compliance dates ahead of the February dates. Regarding the reporting of non-compliances, the EPA has stated the following: “We do not have a specific form or format but please provide enough information for EPA to have a reasonable understanding of what occurred”
Here are the relevant sections of the Vessel General Permit Regulations.
4.4 Reporting
4.4.1 Reporting noncompliance
You must report all instances of noncompliance with this permit at least once per year to the regional offices listed in Part 8. Vessel operators must report the noncompliance to the regional office responsible for the waters in which the noncompliance occurred. If vessels have multiple occurrences of non compliance, they must report all noncompliance to the regional office where either: 1) the greatest number of noncompliance events occurred, or 2) if the same number of noncompliance events occurred, to the regional office responsible for waters where the vessel spent the most time. (http://www.ehso.com/epacontc.htm)
4.1.3 Comprehensive Annual Vessel Inspections
Comprehensive vessel inspections must be conducted by qualified personnel at least once every 12 months. Qualified personnel include the master or owner/operator of the vessel, if appropriately trained, or appropriately trained marine or environmental engineers or technicians or an appropriately trained representative of a vessel’s class society acting on behalf of the owner/operator.
Comprehensive annual inspections must cover all areas of the vessel affected by the requirements in this permit that can be inspected without forcing a vessel into drydock. Special attention should be paid to those areas most likely to result in a discharge likely to cause or contribute to exceedances of water quality standards or violate effluent limits established in this permit. Areas that inspectors must examine include, but are not limited to:
• Vessel hull for attached living organisms, flaking anti-foulant paint, exposed TBT or other organotin surfaces,
• Ballast water tanks, as applicable,
• Bilges, pumps, and oily water separator (OWS) sensors, as applicable,
• Protective seals for lubrication and hydraulic oil leaks,
• Oil and chemical storage areas, cargo areas, and waste storage areas, and
• All visible pollution control measures to ensure that they are functioning properly.
If any of these portions of the vessel are not inspectable without the vessel entering drydock, the vessel owner/operator must inspect these areas during their drydock inspection and their results must be documented in their drydock inspection reports. Furthermore, vessel owner/operators must document which portions of the vessel are not inspectable for the annual inspection in their recordkeeping documentation.
The annual inspections must also include a review of monitoring data collected in accordance with Part 5 if applicable, and routine maintenance records to ensure that required maintenance is being performed (e.g., annual tune-ups for small boats that have wet exhaust). Inspectors must also consider the results of the past year’s visual and analytical monitoring when planning and conducting inspections.
When comprehensive vessel inspection schedules overlap with routine vessel inspections required under Part 4.1.1, your annual comprehensive vessel inspection may also be used as one of the routine inspections, as long as components of both types of inspections are included.
MARPOL Training Institute (MTI) provides computer-based training solutions to the maritime industry for both onboard computers as well as online. They also offer comprehensive training programs on the MARPOL Regulations, Waste Management Best Practices and the Vessel General Permit that include access to the MTI checklist generator system that will create an individual VGP checklist for each of your vessels.
Visit www.marpoltraining.com to see demos and to request trial copies of various programs. Contact [email protected] or call +1 (415) 354-4218 for more information.