US ballast water rules within IMO confines

A proposed rule unveiled by the US Coast Guard would ensure that ballast water thresholds required by US law adhere to standards set out in the IMO’s yet to be ratified treaty, during a “phasing in” period through to 2016.

The proposed rule, set out in a notice published in the US Federal Register, envisages acceleration in purity standards to many degrees above the IMO limits after 2016.

Nonetheless, regulatory experts are praising the proposal as a considered document that could keep mushrooming unilateral and state-level lawmaking in the US at bay.

The 2016 timing of stricter US standards can be advanced or postponed based on practicability and development of technology.

Dennis Bryant, US regulatory consultant, said this flexibility would keep up pressure on the IMO further to improve ballast water standards enshrined in its treaty. More crucially, Bryant said the passage of the US rulemaking could finally kick-start a process where the required number of countries signs the IMO treaty to make it an enforceable international statute.

“This could be a case where the US takes the lead in moving ballast water management forward, not by rejecting the IMO standards, but by unilaterally adopting them,” Bryant said. Although adopted, the IMO treaty will not enter into force until 12 months after at least 30 nations have ratified it. The list at last count stood at 18, with the US still not a signatory.

The IMO treaty requires that existing merchant ships exchange 95% of ballast water 200 nautical miles from shore before any port call, provided this is safe and practicable. The treaty would further require ships constructed in 2009 or later to discharge less than 10 organisms per cubic metre of ballast water. Ships constructed prior to 2009 would need to upgrade their onboard systems to meet this standard by 2016 at the latest.