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By Dennis L. BryantBallast water was first recognized by the scientific community as a vector for transfer of potentially invasive marine species more than 30 years ago. It took anumber of years, and acceptance thatzebra mussels had reached the GreatLakes in the ballast water of ships arriv- ing from the Black Sea, before the mar- itime industry generally acknowledged that they were part of the problem. Ini- tially, high seas ballast water exchange was the only available means for remov- ing potentially invasive species from the tanks. That methodology presented risks to the stability of the ship (and the safetyof the crew), as illustrated by the near- loss of the car carrier Cougar Ace in 2006 in waters of the North Pacific Ocean just south of the Aleutian Chain. The search for alternative means of re- ducing the risk of introduction of invasive marine species commenced immediately, but problems quickly arose. Environ- mental advocates could not agree amongst themselves as to how low the risk should be and what methodologiesshould be acceptable. Some environ- mentalists contended that the ballastwater should be sterilized before dis- charge, making it much more pure than common tap water. Some in the marine industry tried to deny that a problem ex- isted or that, if it did, existing vessels should not have to be altered. Some na- tions (and in the United States, somestates, and one city) adopted independentstandards, resulting in a patchwork of re- quirements that continue to vex the ma- rine industry. Finally, on February 13, 2004, Party States approved the International Con- vention for the Control and Management of Ships? Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (BWM Convention). There is a big difference, though, between getting at- tendees at an international conference tosign a document as they head out the door and getting the governments that sent them to formally ratify and agree to bebound by a new convention. This has been particularly true with the BWMConvention, where many of the provi- sions were aspirational in that technologyfor achieving the goals of the Convention did not exist in 2004. The BWM Convention did, though, es- tablish standards for measuring the ac-ceptability of ballast water control devices. As a result, engineers now had a clear goal and began the process of de- signing and testing various technologies for meeting those control standards. Ittook several more years, but technologies were finally shown as meeting the BWM Convention standard. Now, there is a critical mass of approved technologies, providing ship owners an opportunity to select the system that works best in their particular situation. As of August 9, 2011, 34 ballast water management sys- tems that make use of active substances have received basic approval under the BWM Convention approval process and 20 such systems have received final ap- proval. There is a fly in the ointment of theBWM Convention. Seven years after its promulgation, the Convention is still not officially in force. The Convention pro- vides that it will come into force 12months after the date on which not lessthan 30 states, the combined merchantfleets of which constitute not less than35% of the gross tonnage of the world?s merchant shipping, have ratified or oth- erwise accepted the Convention. As of November 30, 2011, the BWM Conven- tion has been ratified by 31 states with 26.44% of the required gross tonnage.There are strong indications, though, thatthe threshold for implementation will bemet during 2012, such that the Conven- tion can officially come into force during 2013. Based on this expectation, ship owners increasingly are installing ap- proved ballast water management sys- tems in their existing vessels and new vessels are being designed to include those systems.COLUMNGOVERNMENT UPDATE 16Maritime Reporter & Engineering News CleanBallast from RWO GmbH - Marine Water Technology, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Are the Ballast Water Stars Aligning? Ballast Water Management Systems that Use of Active Substances, Received IMO Final Approval NameCountryManufacturer Date of Final Approval PureBallast System...............................................................Norway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alfa Laval/W allenius Water AB. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 13, 2007 SEDNA.................................................................................Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Degussa GmbH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 4, 2008 Electro-Clean........................................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Techcross Ltd. & KORDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 10, 2008 OceanSaver..........................................................................Norway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MetaFil AS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 10, 2008 CleanBallast..........................................................................Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RWO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 17, 2009 NK-O3 BlueBallast System.....................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NK Company Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 17, 2009 ClearBallast..........................................................................Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hitachi Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 17, 2009 Greenship Sedinox ...............................................................The Netherlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greenship Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 17, 2009 GloEn-Patrol Ballast Water Mgmt. System................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Panasia Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 26, 2010 Resource Ballast Technologies System...................................South Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resource Ballast Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 26, 2010 JFE BallastACE......................................................................Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JFE Engineering Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 26, 2010 EcoBallast............................................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyundai Heavy Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 26, 2010 SP-Hybrid BWMS Ozone Version.............................................Japany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1, 2010 ARA Ballast...........................................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21st Century Shipbuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1, 2010 BAlChlor...............................................................................China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qingdao Sunrui Corrosion & Fouling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1, 2010 OceanGuard.........................................................................Norway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qingdao Headway Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1, 2010 BalPure................................................................................Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Severn Trent De Nora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1, 2010 HiBallast...............................................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyundai Heavy Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 15, 2011 Purimar................................................................................Republic of Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samsung Heavy Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 15 2011 Source: International Maritime Organization MR Jan.12 # 2 (10-17):MR Template 1/9/2012 11:44 AM Page 16