A draft of a new VGP
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached an agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental advocacy groups that had challenged the ballast water management (BWM) aspects of the Vessel General Permit (VGP) programme.
Under the settlement, the EPA has agreed to publish a draft of a new VGP by November 2011 and to issue a new permit by November 2012 that would come into effect when the current VGP expires in December 2013.
Among other things, the new VGP will include numeric concentration-based effluent limits for discharges of ballast water expressed as organisms per unit of ballast water volume which are significantly more stringent than the IMO standard.
Although the EPA has reached this settlement agreement, this does not change the current VGP requirements that remain effective until December 2013.
What this agreement means is that when EPA renews the VGP, they will take this settlement into account. They will need to issue a proposed new VGP, request comments and then consider those comments in finalising the renewed VGP.
The EPA is not agreeing to do anything with respect to the content of the final renewed VGP until it is subjected to notice and comment, and the agency will make an independent determination that whatever standards it imposes are consistent with the Clean Water Act and supported by the comments it receives.
Source: INTERTANKO
