BIMCO Needs to Reconsider Draft Sewage Regulation

BIMCO has participated in an intersessional correspondence group which has been working on preparing draft amendments to MARPOL Annex IV on sewage. The report has been submitted to the 8th session of IMO’s subcommittee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 8) for debate.

The draft amendments outline a set of new requirements pertaining to onboard tests verifying the performance of the installed sewage treatment plants (STP), and relevant requirements of a survey regime. Furthermore, the report proposes new equipment requirements and a discharge of sewage management system.

One of the proposed measures introduces stricter standards for effluent from sewage treatment plants (STPs) and new parameters with regard to the measurement of turbidity and total residual oxidizers. The STPs on existing ships are not designed to meet these proposed new parameters.

Instead of the above mentioned stricter requirements, BIMCO and the co-sponsors of this submission have made an alternative suggestion, which is based on developing concrete measures to improve the effluent quality from STPs already installed on existing ships as well as monitor the level of improvement of effluent quality from sewage treatment plants.