Tag: Vessel General Permit

Standard Club launched a new framework concerning the regulations on vessel incidental discharge act (VIDA). VIDA phases out provisions of the Vessel General Permit (VGP) and existing USCG regulations over a time frame of about 4 years. Despite the fact that the wide implications of the new law are still being assessed, the club presented the most important provisions of VIDA.

BIMCO has just published an updated pamphlet relating to the 2013 Vessel General Permit (VGP) and the associated duties to be performed when calling at US ports or entering US waters from 19 December 2013 and onwards.

The UK P&I Club advises vessels operating in US waters that for US 2013 VGP: Deadline is on 19th December 2013 Deadline

A report must be submitted and reports must be submitted by December 19, 201 Further to Classification News 18/2009 and 30/2008 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has advised that a 'one time report' is now required for all vessels covered by its Vessel General Permit (VGP) requirements.A report must be submitted by the owner/operator for each vessel to which the VGP applies and reports must be submitted by December 19, 2011.The EPA has provided an electronic system for filing reports on its website athttp://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/vessels/vesselsreporting.cfm along with a tutorial and a set of frequently asked questions. Owners and operators are strongly advised to use the tutorial as a guide to submitting reportscorrectly.The VGP is a discharge permit covering discharges that are incidental to normal operation. It defines effluent limits for each discharge according to their constituents and to best management practices designed to decrease the amount of those constituents entering the waste stream. A vessel might not produce all of the discharges covered by the permit, but owners and operators are responsible for complying with all the effluent limits for every listed discharge that the vessel produces.More information about the requirements is available at www.epa.gov/npdes/vesselsSource: LR

It denied a petition filed by the Lake Carriers' Association The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a petition filed by the Lake Carriers' Association (LCA) for review of the nationwide Vessel General Permit (VGP) issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the discharge of pollutants incidental to the normal operation of commercial vessels operating on the navigable waters of the United States - Lake Carriers' Association v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 09-1001. The LCA raised a number of procedural challenges, all related to EPA's decision to incorporate into the permit various conditions that States submitted to protect their own water quality. The court found that the LCA had not shown that the additional procedures they requested would have had any effect on the final EPA permit.Source : INTERTANKO