MEPC 72 convened between 9 and 13 April 2018, with many documents regarding the Ballast Water Management Convention to be addressed. Six documents were submitted as considerations and amendments to the BWM Convention, while 15 documents were submitted to be considered by the Review Group (BWRG).
Mouawad Consulting, which participated as advisors to the Norwegian Delegation to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) and Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR), provides a recap of the imporant issues agreed for the BWM treaty as follows:
Of the topics discussed during MEPC72, the most important were:
1. Denial of Final Approval of the Envirocleanse BWMS
MEPC endorsed the recommendation by GESAMP-BWWG to deny the system Final Approval because of unexpected values during the chemical analysis in fresh and marine water. Envirocleanse is planning to submit a new application to MEPC 73.
2. Scaling Guidelines BWM.2/Circ.33
After a submission by Denmark, the BWRG reviewed the guidelines for scaling of BWMS and re-wrote the whole document from the beginning. The new guidelines provided a way for approaching scaling and allowing Administrations to give enough attention to this important aspect of type approval of BWMS. However, the date of application of the new guidance is still unknown.
3. Sampling for compliance during commissioning
MEPC adopted the principle of sampling and analysis during commissioning of individual BWMS, in order to verify that the installation can discharge water, according to the D-2 standard.
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BWRG produced a draft for how those tests can be conducted. MEPC adopted those procedures and asked for submissions, in order to adopt the guidelines at MEPC 73.
4. Should contingency measures be part of the BWM Plan?
IACS questioned if the general references in BWM.2/Circ.62, which is the Guidance on contingency measures under the BWM Convention, should be included into existing BWM Plans, that then should be re-submitted for approval.
MEPC responded that there is no requirement to revise existing BWM Plans to include the new contingency measures. It is possible that MEPC is working on a Unified Interpretations to clarify elements included in the BWM.2/Circ.62, but this will not be required to be included in existing BWM Plans.
