Page 12: of Marine News Magazine (November 2025)

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Column

Washington Watch tor for invasives. detectable today (“Regulation D-2”). vessel ef? uent limitations, the EPA’s

Also prior to the federal courts’ over- Today, as a result of these indepen- management requirements are only a turning of the EPA’s exclusion of vessels dent developments, both the Coast federal “? oor”—meaning individual from NPDES, in 2004 the Coast Guard Guard and EPA are regulating ballast U.S. states have the ability to set ad- and the Department of State headed a water under distinct, uncoordinated, ditional ef? uent limitations and man-

U.S. Delegation to the International and sometimes clashing sets of require- agement requirements in their waters,

Maritime Organization (IMO) where ments—the Coast Guard under NAN- on top of federal requirements. Sev- the International Convention for the PCA/NISA and the EPA under the eral states have done so since the VGP

Control and Management of Ships’ Clean Water Act and NPDES. While went into effect with little or no coor-

Ballast Water and Sediments (Conven- both the Coast Guard and the EPA have dination with one another, resulting tion) was adopted. The Convention adopted the IMO Regulation D-2 stan- in varying requirements depending includes a number of important pro- dard as their treatment standard for bal- on the state waters in which a vessel visions relating to research and devel- last water, there has been considerable ? nds itself. For those readers familiar opment of treatment technology and confusion between them and among with the historic emphasis on unifor- the roles of ? ag states and port states vessel owner/operators over how to ad- mity in the ? eld of maritime law and in adoption and use of that technol- minister, and properly comply with, the policy, this is a far cry from it. ogy, but most importantly it includes a agencies’ varying requirements. Once fully implemented by EPA ballast water treatment standard based Adding to the confusion for ves- and Coast Guard, the current hot mess on the number of living organisms sel owner/operators is the fact that, of federal and state commercial vessel contained in discharged ballast water under the Clean Water Act, NPDES, discharge management requirements that is the most stringent standard sci- and the EPA’s Vessel General Permit and limitations will be superseded by a enti? cally proven to be achievable and (VGP) that it has used to manage single, uniform set of national require- ments. Some of you know that I per- sonally invested a decade of my profes- sional life as a U.S. Senate committee counsel getting VIDA to the President’s desk, and others too numerous to name here invested even more years than I did.

Uniform treatment and management rules for commercial vessel discharges are a no-brainer—from facilitating ves- sel owner/operator compliance under simpli? ed, uniform requirements to the ease of Coast Guard enforcement that comes with such requirements.

As DHS and the Trump Adminis- tration contemplate which rulemak- ings they will and will not prioritize,

I urge every vessel owner/operator and every mariner coping with the patchwork quilt of overly complicated and confusing regulations to com- municate to them, through whatever means available, the importance of

Coast Guard’s VIDA implementing rule. Uniformity: we are almost there!

12 | MN November 2025