INTERTANKO, as part of an industry coalition, has sent a letter to the leadership of the US Senate supporting and urging the passage of legislation that will establish a consistent, practical, and science-based national standard for the management of vessel discharges, including ballast water management.

The maritime industry is currently facing an inconsistent patchwork of legislation within the US, where two federal agencies, the US Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and more than two dozen individual states, regulate ballast water and other vessel discharges in overlapping and sometimes contradictory ways.

Senate Bill S.3332 would help resolve this untenable situation by putting into place a national ballast water treatment standard that has been determined by a panel of independent scientists to be the most stringent currently achievable.

This, along with House Bill HR 2838, which was passed by the House of Representatives, would eliminate the need for state regulations and would ensure that vessel owners will install the most effective, commercially available ballast water treatment technologies to protect the marine environment.