Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2004)

Government Update

U.S. Ocean Dumping Act

As this article is being written, the chief executive officer of an American ocean carrier is on trial for alleged par- ticipation in the discharge of contami- nated wheat into waters of the South

China Sea. The charges were brought under the somewhat obscure U.S. Ocean

Dumping Act.

In 1999, a U.S. flag ship owned and operated by the company was carrying

U.S. wheat to Bangladesh. Due to a leak in a fuel tank, some of the wheat became contaminated and was rejected upon arrival. Some Bulgarian workers were brought on board the ship in Singapore and discharged the wheat overboard en route to the United States. The compa- ny and the company's former president have already pled guilty to the offence.

If convicted, the CEO faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The Ocean Dumping Act implements, for the United States, the International

Convention on the Prevention of Marine

Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and

Other Matter, popularly known as the

London Dumping Convention. The

Ocean Dumping Act, though, contains provisions that exceed equivalent provi- sions of the Convention.

The London Dumping Convention and the U.S. Ocean Dumping Act both have as a primary goal the prevention of pol- lution of the sea by dumping of waste and other matter that is liable to create hazards to human health, to harm living resources and marine life, to damage amenities, or to interfere with other legitimate uses of the sea. The London

Dumping Convention specifically pro- vides that dumping does not include, among other things, "the disposal at sea of wastes or other matter incidental to. or derived from the normal operations of vessels." The U.S. Ocean Dumping Act adopts a narrower view with regard to exemptions, excluding from the defini- tion of dumping only "a routine dis- charge of effluent incidental to the propulsion of, or operation of motor- driven equipment on, vessels."

In practical terms, the London

Dumping Convention incorporates and is consistent with the garbage disposal provisions found in Annex V of the

International Convention for the

Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention). The U.S.

Ocean Dumping Act, in some respects, is not consistent with Annex V of the

MARPOL Convention.

Annex V of the MARPOL Convention provides that disposal into the sea of garbage shall be made as far as practica- ble from the nearest land, but disposal is prohibited if the distance to the nearest land is less than 25 nautical miles in the case of floating garbage such as dunnage or less than 12 nautical miles in the case of food wastes and garbage that normal- ly sinks. Garbage is defined as all kinds of victual, domestic, and operational

Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime

Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN. waste generated during the normal oper- ation of the ship and liable to be dis- posed of continuously or periodically.

Guidelines for the implementation of

Annex V were promulgated by the

International Maritime Organization (IMO) to provide governments and ves- sel operators with additional detail regarding the goals of this annex. The

Guidelines define cargo residues as "the

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