The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Vessel General Permit (VGP) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) with discharges of pollutants incidental to their normal operation, including but not limited to ballast water discharges, for all vessels with their length of 24 meters (79 feet) or longer, except fishing vessels, which intend to navigate within 3 miles from U.S. territorial waters after 6 February 2009.

The vessel's owner/operator is requested to prepare "Drydock Inspection Reports" defined in clause 4.1.4 of VGP requirement. In this connection ClassNK may cooperate with vessel's owner/operator so as to carry out inspection and prepare the SoF (Statement of Fact) available to the EPA.

Upon request, but limited to ClassNK registered, ClassNK will issue SoF upon attesting vessel's compliance with VGP requirements during dry-docking, where the following items shall be confirmed to the surveyor's satisfaction.

1) The chain locker has been cleaned for both sediment and living organisms,
2) The vessel hull, propeller, rudder, thruster gratings, sea chest, and other surface areas of the vessel have been inspected for attached living organisms and those organisms have been removed or neutralized,
3) Any antifoulant hull coatings have been applied, maintained and removed consistent with the FIFRA label if applicable; any exposed existing or any new coating does not contain biocides or toxics that are banned for use in the United States,
4) For all cathodic protection, anodes or dialectic coatings have been cleaned and/or replaced to reduce flaking, and
5) All pollution control equipment is properly functioning.


Following URL will present full text of the VGP.
http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/vessel_vgp_permit.pdf




(To be continued)