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BALLAST WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS
Clean Shipping International talks to ballast water treatment system manufacturers about their views on compliance monitoring devices — and discovers a mixed response
CMDS CAUSE WIDE DEBATE In an American Bureau of Shipping roundup of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 8 March Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR8) Sub-Committee meeting, discussions opened regarding standards for verifying the effectiveness and accuracy of ballast water compliance monitoring devices (CMDs). These devices are typically used for indicative analysis, which is relatively quick, but less precise than detailed analysis, the class society said. Despite this varied use of CMDs and the various water conditions in which they may be used, there is no widely accepted protocol for validating such devices. Building on discussions that began at MEPC74 and PPR6, a group of member states and industry observers submitted a proposed protocol for the verification of ballast water CMDs, in the absence of formal approval requirements for such devices under the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) for consideration. The proposal included verification
parameters of the CMD’s accuracy, precision and detection limits, while also varying the salinity and the size of microbes of the laboratory-prepared challenge water. There was disagreement on an earlier proposition that verification testing of CMDs should include on-board testing. Some IMO members argued that laboratory testing was preferable because microorganism concentrations in the challenge water could be controlled and varied in a laboratory environment, while others said that laboratory testing of such a device could not simulate the challenging and varying conditions seen in ballast water treatment on board ships. The current draft suggested using both laboratory and field tests. There was also some disagreement on whether the IMO should pursue development of a verification standard, due to the fact that the International Organization for Standardization was also pursuing development of a similar standard.
C L E A N S H I P P I N G INTERNATIONAL – Summer 2021
