Posted on November 26, 2024
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The EPA and Coast Guard are working together to establish and enforce the new standards that create best practices for large ships to prevent and limit harmful pollutants from entering U.S. waters.
The Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA) was created in 2018 to connect the EPA, Coast Guard and state incidental discharge requirements. The Environmental Protection Agency was charged with creating performance-based discharge standards for incidental discharges. The Coast Guard was charged with establishing Compliance and Enforcement regulations based on that.
In Oct. of 2024, the EPA finalized it’s rules, and now the Coast Guard is embarking on creating compliance and enforcement systems.
Incidental discharge is pollutants, waste or other emissions created as byproducts of running large boats. Charleston Waterkeeper Andrew Wunderley explains how those can impact local waters.
“A big issue with vessel traffic in the Charleston Harbor can be discharged from those vessels that contain invasive species, toxic chemicals, metals, that sort of thing, and can really impact our water quality, habitat quality here in the harbor.”
Knowing the impacts, the goal of VIDA is to prevent and limit the volume of incidental discharge through established best practices. The rules will apply to vessels 79 feet and longer and establish standards of performance that apply to three categories: general operation and maintenance, biofouling management, and oil management. The EPA estimates this will apply to 85,000 vessels from cargo boats to cruise ships to fishing boats.
“So that’s going to be your foreign vessels and your domestic vessels. Charleston is a major port of the United States, and so it’s obviously, going to have a lot of applicable vessels,” Garcia says.
Right now, Garcia says the Coast Guard inspects ballast water on vessels, and then the EPA monitors large ships for incidental discharges through the Vessel General Permit Program.
“I can say the Coast Guard has vessel inspectors stationed throughout the country, and we go and we board vessels and we do check for compliance with environmental safety and security requirements,” Garcia says.
As for the new VIDA standards, it’s been a process since 2018 to get them into full effect.
“This year, in October of 2024 the EPA finalized their regulations. So the Coast Guard is now working on compliance and enforcement requirements of those regulations. And then, once Coast Guard regulations are finalized, then VIDA will be fully implemented,” Garcia says.
A part of the EPA and Coast Guard work is looking into the costs to corporations and establishing that it is feasible for boats to reach the new best practices since the cost falls on the operators to meet the standards.
Wunderley says large movements like VIDA are steps in the right direction in protecting our environment.
“This is a good thing. This is a good thing for water quality. Stronger protections that better protect the harbor and the unique ecosystems we have here are great. And so I think we can expect water quality that’s better protected. We can expect better protections for the aquatic life that make their home here, but also, more than that, a healthier ecosystem, a healthier watershed, is a more resilient watershed, and that can better protect us from the effects of climate change,” Wunderley says.
According to the VIDA overview, the specific discharge standards of performance establish requirements for the following 20 distinct pieces of equipment and systems:
- ballast tanks
- bilges
- boilers
- cathodic protection
- chain lockers
- decks
- desalination and purification systems
- elevator pits
- exhaust gas emission control systems
- fire protection equipment
- gas turbines
- graywater systems
- hulls and associated niche areas
- inert gas systems
- motor gasoline and compensating systems
- non-oily machinery
- pools and spas
- refrigeration and air conditioning
- seawater piping
- sonar domes
Until the Coast Guard establishes its compliance system, vessels continue to be subject to the existing discharge requirements established in EPA’s 2013 Vessel General Permit and the USCG’s ballast water regulations.
Garcia says the Coast Guard will invite the public to comment throughout their process.
