Ballast Water Deficiencies in U.S. Double in 2017
Commercial shipowners are feeling the sting of the US Coast Guard’s (USCG’s) stepped-up efforts to ensure vessels trading in the United States are complying with US ballast water regulations, according to preliminary data obtained by Fairplay.
[...]
Getting manufacturers to shoulder responsibility for equipment breakdowns – outside the contractual agreement with the vessel owner – is not likely. But shipowners trading in the United States can be spared some of the headaches they are experiencing from equipment breakdowns through a liberal enforcement policy by the coastguard, argues maritime regulations compliance expert Jeanne Grasso, a partner at law firm Blank Rome.
“I don’t know that this is a liability issue, to me, it’s more of a regulatory discretion issue,” Grasso told Fairplay. “Ships travel around the world, so if the manufacturer can’t deliver in a timely manner, I don’t think the shipowner should take the hit for that. I think the coastguard should recognise that this is a new technology and the challenges it presents for shipowners.”
Grasso is in favour of a USCG ballast water regime in which the ability of a ballast water manufacturer to respond to service outages be taken into account during the equipment type-approval process.
“What does the vendor’s service network look like, and how extensive is it? What is their capacity for getting parts delivered in a timely fashion at port locations around the world? If the coastguard is not considering those questions during the type-approval phase, then I think it should be using more discretion when enforcing the regulation.”
To read the full article, please click here.
"Ballast Water Deficiencies in U.S. Double in 2017," by John Gallagher was published in Fairplay on March 23, 2018.