
EPA Vessel General Permit
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Vessel General Permit History |
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| January 1999 | Interested parties (including Northwest Environmental Advocates) submitted a petition to EPA asking for repeal of its regulation (40 CFR. 122.3(a)) excluding discharges incidental to the normal operation of vessels from needing an NPDES permit. The main concern of the petition was ballast water. |
| September 2003 | EPA denied the petition. |
| December 2003 | The petitioners and others filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court. |
| March 30, 2005 | The U.S. District Court ruled that the EPA regulation excluding discharges incidental to the normal operation of a vessel from NPDES permitting exceeded the Agency’s authority under the CWA. |
| September 18, 2006 | The U.S. District Court issued an order revoking 40 C.F.R. 122.3(a) as of September 30, 2008 at which time all discharges from vessels would be subject to NPDES permits. |
| June 17, 2008 | EPA published a FR notice proposing to issue on September 30, 2008 a Vessel General Permit (VGP) for commercial vessels and large recreational vessels and a Recreational General Permit (RGP) for recreational vessels less than 79 feet. |
| July 23, 2008 | The Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court decision and the September 30, 2008 vacatur date. |
| July 31, 2008 | The Water Quality Program submitted 20 comments to EPA on the content of the VGP along with a cover letter expressing concern over permit issuance authority issues. |
| July 29, 2008 | Senate bill S. 2766 (Clean Boating Act of 2008) was signed into law and provides that recreational vessels shall not be subject to the requirement to obtain an NPDES permit. It instead directs EPA to evaluate recreational vessel discharges, develop management practices for appropriate discharges, and the USCG to promulgate regulations requiring those management practices. |
| July 31, 2008 | Senate bill S. 3298 was signed into law imposing a two-year moratorium during which time neither EPA nor states can require NPDES permits for any vessels less than 79 feet and commercial fishing vessels of any length. It also directs EPA to conduct a study of vessel discharges and issue a report to Congress within 15 months. The moratorium does not apply to ballast water, trash rubbish or garbage, or any other discharge considered by EPA or a state to contribute to violation of a water quality standard or to pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. |
| August 31, 2008 | The District Court extended the date of vacatur and permit issuance to December 19, 2008. |
| December 19, 2008 | EPA issues the VGP and the U.S. District Court extends the exemption for vessel discharges until February 6, 2009. EPA neither withdraws the VGP nor allows the deadlines to be reinterpreted in light of the extension of the vessel discharge exemption. |
| January 12, 2009 | The Northwest Environmental Advocates petitions the Ninth Circuit Court to require EPA to revise the VGP to require ballast water treatment since not doing so is obviously not protective of national waters. Many other industry and environmental groups are known to have also appealed. Many states are being sued over state-specific VGP conditions. All states which banned graywater discharges have been sued. |
| February 6, 2009 | EPA reissues the VGP to include 401 certifications and conditions from AK and HI, to fix typographical errors, and to delete conditions from states (IL, NJ, and CA) having second thoughts. |
| June 8, 2009 | EPA’s Vessel eNOI (Notice of Intent) went online 11 days early to allow operators of vessels greater than 300 gross tons or capable of carrying more than 8 cubic meters of ballast water to notify EPA that they are seeking coverage under the VGP. Only these larger vessels are required by the VGP to submit NOIs. Other commercial vessels ≥ 79 feet (and smaller vessels not exempted by Senate bill S. 3298 – see July 31, 2008 above) in length receive coverage under the VGP automatically without having to submit an NOI. |
| August 28, 2009 | The United States Coast Guard (USCG) proposes in the Federal Register to establish national ballast water discharge standards (BWDS) and amend the process for ballast water management system (BWMS) approval. The deadline for comments is November 27, 2009. The proposed phase-1 BWDS is the same as the current International Maritime Organization (IMO) ballast water standard and the phase-2 BWDS is 1,000 times lower than IMO. USCG will conduct a practicability review prior to implementing phase-2. Crude oil tankers and military vessels are not exempt. The phase-1 BWDS must be met by vessels constructed on or after January 1, 2012 and existing vessels have until 2014 or 2016 (depending on vessel size) to meet the phase-1 BWDS. The phase-2 BWDS must be met by vessels constructed on or after January 1, 2016 and existing vessels have until the first dry dock scheduled after January 1, 2016 or five years after installing a BWMS meeting the phase-1 BWDS (whichever is later and assuming that the original BWMS installation occurred prior to January 1, 2016). |
| September 19, 2009 | Deadline for submitting an NOI. Vessels greater than 300 gross tons or capable of carrying more than 8 cubic meters of ballast water lose coverage on this day unless EPA has received an NOI. |
| September 28, 2009 | USCG public hearing in Seattle on proposed ballast water standards and process. |
| November 27, 2009 | Deadline for commenting on USCG proposed standards for ballast water and approval process for treatment. To comment go to http://www.regulations.gov, and enter docket # USCG-2001-10486. |
Vessel General Permit Contacts |
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| US EPA Headquarters | Ryan Albert 202-564-0763 CommercialVesselPermit@epa.gov Vessel Web Page |
Juhi Saxena 202-564-0719 CommercialVesselPermit@epa.gov |
| EPA Region 10 | Cindi Godsey 907- 271-6561 godsey.cindi@epa.gov |
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| Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation | Sharmon Stambaugh 907-269-7565 sharmon.stambaugh@alaska.gov |
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| California Water Board | Dominic Gregorio 916-341-5488 dgregorio@waterboards.ca.gov |
Kim Ward 916-341-5586 kward@waterboards.ca.gov |
| Oregon Department of Environmental Quality | Annette Leibe 503-229-5589 leibe.annette@deq.state.or.us |
Sally Puent 503-229-5379 PUENT.Sally@deq.state.or.us |
| Washington State Department of Ecology | Randall Marshall 360-407-6445 rmar461@ecy.wa.gov |
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Other Vessel Related Contacts and Links |
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| Washington Department of Ecology Spills Program | Sean Orr 360-407-7420 sorr461@ecy.wa.gov Department of Ecology Spills Web Page |
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| Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Aquatic Invasive Species Program (including ballast water and ship/boat hulls) | Allen Pleus 360-902-2724 Allen.Pleus@dfw.wa.gov WA State Department of Fish & Wildlife Ballast Water Program WA State Department of Fish & Wildlife Aquatic Nuisance Species |
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