Vessel General Permit

Vessel General Permit

USEPA has developed a VGP to regulate discharges from all commercial vessels (those longer or equal to 79 ft.) The VGP incorporates the U.S. Coast Guard mandatory ballast water management and echange standards and adds some additional requirements for ballast water management. The VGP addresses 28 potential vessel discharge streams by establishing effluent limits, including BMPs, to control the discharge streams and constituents found in those waste streams. For each discharge type, the VGP establishes effluent limits pertaining to the constituents found in the effluent and BMPs designed to decrease the amount of constituents entering the waste stream.The VGP includes effluent limitations to control a variety of materials, which have been classified into seven major groups. The VGP also establishes additional technology -based requirements for certain discharges from eight specific classes of vessels, such as cruise ships, research vessels, and large ferries and water quality-based effluent limits that incorporate requirements for imparied waterbodies. Under the VGP, certain discharge types would be limited or prohibited in waters protected for conservation purposes (i.e. national marine sanctuaries and national parks). The VGP also establishes specific corrective actions, inspections and monitoring requirements as well as record keeping and reporting requirements. The VGP also requires submission of a NOI for a subset of permittees if the vessel is greater or equal to 300 tons or has a ballast water capacity of at least eight cubic meters. USEPA estimates that this requirement would affect 44, 363 domestic and 7, 834 foreign flagged vessels. All other vessels covered by the VGP would not have to submit an NOI.

Nationwide