The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with container transport big CMA CGM over two claims of violations of EPA’s Vessel General Permit (VGP) issued underneath the Clean Water Act. Under the phrases of the settlements, CMA CGM pays $165,000 in penalties for claims of violations by 4 of the corporate’s ships involving ballast water discharge, recordkeeping, inspection, monitoring, and reporting.
“The Vessel General Permit is a key element of the Clean Water Act. When companies and their ships don’t comply with this permit, the quality of our nation’s already-challenged waters can be seriously impacted,” mentioned EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “It’s incumbent upon vessel owners and operators to properly manage what they discharge into our oceans, and to meet their monitoring and reporting requirements.”
Privately-owned CMA CGM is headquartered in Marseille, France. The EPA asserts that the corporate did not:
- Treat ballast water previous to discharging it in a fashion in step with the compliance deadline at U.S. ports, together with the Port of Los Angeles in California.
- Record the findings of annual complete inspections.
- Conduct an annual calibration of a ballast water therapy system.
- Monitor and pattern discharges from ballast water therapy methods.
- Report full and correct data in annual reviews.
The VGP settlements consists of penalties of $48,277 for violations by the CMA CGM A. Lincoln, $48,233 for the CMA CGM T. Jefferson, $52,197 for the CMA CGM Fidelio, and $16,293 for the APL Columbus.
Vessel self-inspections are required as a method of figuring out, for instance, potential sources of spills, damaged air pollution prevention tools, or different points which may result in allow violations. Self-inspections empower the proprietor or operator to diagnose and repair issues in a well timed method to stay compliant with the allow and with U.S. legislation. Because the Clean Water Act depends on self-reporting of permittees, violations tied to failures or delays in inspection, monitoring, and reporting are severe and undermine the allow program.
In addition, says EPA, it is vital that such discharges by ships be monitored to make sure that aquatic ecosystems are protected against discharges that include pollution. Invasive species are a persistent drawback in U.S. coastal and inland waters. Improper administration of ballast water can introduce invasive species or injury native species by disrupting habitats and rising aggressive stress. Discharges of different waste streams regulated by the Vessel General Permit (e.g., grey water, exhaust fuel scrubber water, lubricants, and many others.) may cause poisonous impacts to native species or include pathogenic organisms.
EPA’s settlements with CMA CGM resolves claims of Clean Water Act violations and are topic to a 30-day public remark interval previous to closing approval.
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As we reported earlier, again in June, the EPA reached comparable VGP violation settlements with Swire Shipping Pte. Ltd. MMS Co. Ltd.
