Concerned that adequate ballast water management systems will be available until 2020, the Liberian Maritime Administration proposes to allow certain[ds_preview] ships additional time for installation as required under the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC). An official proposal will be introduced to the meeting of the IMO Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC70) in London on 24 October. The new ballast water rules come into force in September 2017. The proposal, says Liberia, would ensure that enough adequate systems and sufficient dockyard space are available.
With effect from 8 September, 2017, most oceangoing ships engaged in worldwide operations will be required to install a ballast water management system. But it has emerged that the current IMO guidelines are not sufficiently detailed to ensure that BWM systems have been adequately challenged to provide the required confidence that they will meet the required discharge performance standard, regardless of where a ship may operate, LISCR says. David Pascoe, Senior Vice-President, Operations & Standards at LISCR, the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, says: »We have identified certain potential limitations, which have been listed on the Liberian Type Approval Certificate issued to manufacturers. The revised BWMS approval guidelines are expected to be roughly aligned with the robust type-approval regime of the United States, thus establishing a rigorous global standard for BWMS type-approval. But there are no BWM systems currently approved by the US, and it could take several years for equipment approved under the new IMO guidelines to be readily available for installation.« In the meantime, tens of thousands of ships may be required to install existing systems that may not fully comply with the convention standards,Pascoe warns.
The compliance dates are linked to the date a ship’s International Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) certificate is renewed after 8 September 2017. In order to allow more time for new systems to become available and for shipowners to decide which system to invest in, Liberia proposes that owners may decide if they wish to renew a ship’s IOPP earlier in order to have an additional four to five years to decide.
»It is by no means certain that adequate new systems will be commercially available in sufficient quantities within this period. Additionally, based on a study by Liberia, the dockyard capacity to fit systems on board ships will fall well short of peak demand, expected to occur in 2020-2021,« Pascoe warns, and adds, that while the IMO roadmap provides for non-penalization of early movers, it may be that this equipment will require modification or replacement in the future, as will be the case in the US.
