IMO to Shed Light on HME Disposal Confusion

Guidance circular to be issued for ships calling at ports without reception facilities for Harmful to the Marine Environment (HME) waste, including Hold Washing Water (HWW).

Shipowners pleas for greater clarity on what to do when there are no adequate port reception facilities to receive residues including Hold Washing Water (HWW) from cargoes deemed “Harmful to the Marine Environment” (HME), have been substantially answered after an important decision at the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee held on 13-17 May.
 
With effect from 1 January 2013, shippers and shipowners faced difficulties in meeting the requirements of the amended MARPOL Annex V regulations which entered into force on that day without knowing whether there were suitable facilities to process the dry residues and HWW at the receiving port.
 
Compounded by the fact that a few shippers did not realise that the IMO had clarified in Circular MEPC.1/Circ 791 that they had to declare whether a commodity was HME or not with immediate effect, albeit with some flexibility on the criteria used to define HME until the end of 2014, many shippers and owners were left confused as to how to comply with the regulations.
 
However, this is set to change after Governments at the IMO meeting considered representations from Intercargo – the Dry Bulk Shipowners Association and supported by other Round Table Shipowners Associations and concerned Flag and Port States, which identified the scale of the problem and suggested a pragmatic interim solution.
 
Delegates had considered evidence of shortcomings in a representative sample of countries receiving dry bulk shipments and with information from the International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM), were left in no doubt that the difficulties in meeting the regulatory requirements were genuine.
 
IMO will now send an official Circular to Industry providing shipowners / operators with some flexibility and clear guidance on procedures to be adopted when encountering a lack of adequate port reception facilities for HWW.   This will state that, until 31 December 2015, HWW from holds previously containing solid bulk cargoes classified as HME, may be discharged outside Special Areas, providing :

• Based on the information from the receiving port, the Master determines that there are no adequate reception facilities at the receiving terminal or at the next port of call;
• The ship is en-route and as far as practicable but at least 12 nautical miles from the nearest land;
•  Before washing, solid bulk cargo residues are removed (and bagged for discharge ashore) as far as practicable, and the holds swept;

Filters are used in the bilge wells to collect any remaining solid particles and to minimize solid residue discharge; AND  the discharge is recorded in the Garbage Record Book with the Flag State notified utilizing the Revised Consolidated Format for Reporting Alleged Inadequacies of Port Reception Facilities (MEPC.1 / Circ 469