A bipartisan bill to set uniform standards for regulating
ballast water and other incidental discharges from vessels, and clarify
requirements for fishermen and other small boat users is now before the US
Senate.
The Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, introduced March 6 by
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, has 20 Democrat and
Republican co-sponsors include Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska,
Begich chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere,
Fisheries and the Coast Guard and Rubio is a ranking member.
Vessel discharge is most often rainwater and other runoff
that accumulates on deck.
The Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency
currently regulate ballast water under separate, sometimes inconsistent federal
statues and implementing regulations, Begich said. EPA regulation under the
Clean Water Act also opened the door for states to establish their own varying
standards and requirements for incidental vessel discharges.
The aim of their legislation is to have one uniform set of
environmentally sound standards in place, he said.
“It sets a national standard for ballast water and other
discharges and significantly tightens these rules over time,” Begich said. “It
gives a permanent exemption for fishermen and other small boat owners who are
not considered part of the problem.
The Vessel Incidental Discharge Act would establish ballast
water treatment requirements set by the Coast Guard in 2012 as the uniform
national standard governing ballast water discharges by vessels. By 2022, the
Coast Guard and EPA would be required to issue a revised rule that is 100 times
more stringent than the initial ballast water treatment standard. And if a more
stringent state ballast water treatment standard is determined to be feasibly
achievable, detectable and commercial available the more stringent standard
would be adopted as the uniform national standard.
The legislation would exempt incidental discharges by
commercial vessels of less than 79 feet, fishing vessels including seafood
processors, and recreational vessels, as well as discharges that occur for
research, safety or similar purposes.
In the US House, meanwhile, commercial fisheries groups from
Florida to the Pacific Northwest have rallied around the Commercial Vessel
Discharges Reform Act of 2013, introduced by Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., which
was incorporated into the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014
in mid-February.
The commercial fisheries coalition said that without this
legislation they would be exposed to yet another layer of permitting and
regulation, a layer they said is unwarranted and would impose an unnecessary
bureaucratic burden on an already overburdened fleet.