Company: DSX-PB
Filing Date: 2025-03-21
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001562762-25-000050
Chunk: 118

Company: DIANA SHIPPING INC.
Filing Date: 2025-03-21
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 118
---

by a

duly-issued permit

or exemption,

and imposes

strict liability

in the

form of

penalties for

any unauthorized

discharges.

The CWA

also imposes

substantial liability for

the costs of removal, remediation and damages

and complements the remedies available

under OPA and

CERCLA.

In 2015, the EPA

expanded the definition of “waters of the United States” (“ WOTUS”),

thereby

expanding federal authority

under the CWA.

Following litigation on

the revised WOTUS rule,

in December

2018, the EPA and Department of the Army proposed a revised,

limited definition of WOTUS. In 2019

and

2020,

the

agencies repealed

the

prior

WOTUS Rule

and

promulgated the

Navigable Waters

Protection

Rule

(“ NWPR”)

which significantly

reduced the

scope and

oversight of

EPA

and

the

Department of

the

Army

in

traditionally

non

navigable

waterways.

On

August

30,

2021,

a

federal

district

court

in

Arizona

vacated the NWPR and directed the agencies to replace the rule with the pre-2015 definition.. In January

2023, the revised WOTUS rule was codified in place of the vacated NWPR. On May

25, 2023, the United

States Supreme Court ruled in

the case Sackett v. EPA that only wetlands and permanent bodies of water

with a "continuous

surface connection"

to "traditional

interstate navigable

waters" are covered

by the

CWA,

further narrowing the application

of the WOTUS rule.

On August 2023, the

EPA and the Department of the

Army

issued

the

final

WOTUS

rule,

effective

September

8,

2023,

that

largely

reinstated

the

pre-2015

definition and applied the

Sackett

ruling.

The EPA and the

USCG have

also enacted

rules relating

to ballast

water discharge,

compliance with

which

requires the

installation of

equipment on

our vessels

to treat

ballast water

before it

is discharged

or the

implementation of other port

facility disposal arrangements or

pro