### 1Points: 

### 1. BW treatment is a "new" industry. Scale and operational milieus are very different from traditional land-based water treatment. Requires new approaches for both treatment and the assessment of treatment processes.



### 2USCG R&D on methods for assessing BW treatment systems and ballast water driven by national le g i slation requiring USCG to regulate BWM by vessels to prevent biological invasions mediat ed by BW discharges. Proposed draft regulation published in 2009 for public review and comment. Fina l regulation in clearance now



### 3To develop protocols for testing the performa n ce of BWMS, USCG has teamed w ith pre -existing USEPA program - the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program This work provides the basis for U

.S. recommendations during negotiation of IMO guidance on type approva l procedures under t he BWM Convention

. Final Protocols for land

- based t ests published in 2010, and available for download. The ETV protocols proposed will form the bas i s for**biolog c~!**  efficacy testing dur i ng type approvals by the USCG



### 4Although ETV protocols validated prior to publication through extensive tests at NRLKey West, question remains regarding the comparabi l ity of tests conducted by different test facilities in d i fferent locations. USCG and other federal partners currently collaborating on an "intercalibration" project to assess the degree to which the ETV protocol can be conducted by different test faci l it i es in a comparable manner. Importantly, this test can also provide information on the degree to which the BWMS performs when tested sim i larly under different biological and physical test conditions.



### 5In the initial testing, two faci lities involved, o n e brackish estuarine and the other freshwater. A single BWMS is being tested sequentially at these two sites, under the same protocol.



### 6Is there a chance that additional test facilities can be added? Dependent on funding. Currently no funds available, but at least one additiona l facility is operating in the U.S. With additional funds and/or partners, it may be possible to add additiona l faci l ities outside the U.S.



### 7

### ETV BW treatment system program started with understanding that both land-based and shipboard testing were important- but focused initially on LB. Second phase to develop shipboard test protocols is beginning Stakeholder meeting has been scheduled for f irst week of August, in ann Arbor, MI. Point to make here: ETV prov i des a mechanism for technology users to identify performance factors of interest that may lie outside the envelope of regulatory requirements.



### 8Rapid Indicative analyses e.g. , residual chem(cals, chlorophyll fluorescence. etc



### As indicated by the discussions at IMO, there is great interest and concern regarding how the assessment of ve ssel compliance with the requirements of the BWM Convention will be conducted. Because of the recognition that definitive analyses based on counts of living organisms in the different si ze classes requires a significant effort, 

### there is keen in t erest in identifying or develop i ng rapid diagnostic methods. Rapid "indicative" methods may focus on bio l ogical parameters other than the number of individuals, or may be based on chemical or physical parameters that are associated with effective t reatment. These latter parameters may be different for different treatment processes. In many 

### cases, BWMS developers are incorporating the measu rement of some of these parameters into the control units for their syst ems. Several biological paramet e rs are a l so under investigation, such as direct or indirect measurement of biological substances or processes, including chlorophyl/photoynthesis, ATP, or other metabolic products of cellular processes. USCG is exploring the availability and status of methods for assessing compliance of discharged water with the requirements of discharge regulations. Both rapid indicative and more time

- consuming definitive methods are under investigation With its partner, t he NRL , several methods have been investigated and refined that focus on biological attributes. These include methods that use fluorescent markers that indicate either viable or dead cells , as well as methods that use standardized and automated measures of m ovement. I mportantly, any such methods mu s t be caref ully validated for use as " tools" under operat i onal conditions.



### 9Finally, with respect to compliance assessment, there is the iss ue of how to acquire and process a representative sample of the BW being discharged by a vessel. Statistical theory and implementation constraints dictate that significant volumes of water can be necessary to achieve a meaningful measurement of organism number, particularly for the larger size classes of organisms. Collecting several to tens of cubic meters of water in the confines of an engine room or other internal equipment space is usually not possible. USCG and its partner NRL have been investigating design for sample ports and for a flow-through sample collection apparatus. The sample port work contributed greatly to the current IMO guidance on sampling. The flow-through apparatus is currently unde r investigation, but preliminary proof of concept work has yielded very posit ive results. Additional shipboard validation work is planned.



### 10The last R&D effort I'll describe focuses on assessing corrosion risks associated with
some of the different active substances and treatment processes being developed and brought to the market. USCG and its partner NRL have begun a series of projects to assess the potential effects of BWMSs on corro sion in ballast systems in general, and additionally to also look closely at the special case of ships without protective tank coatings, such as ships operating exclusively in the U.S. Great Lakes and the inland waterway system.



### 11The methods developed according to ETV/USCG provide a standardized app roach to BWT system evaluation

. A standardized approach is necessary to enable a " level " playing field for all technologies. Under the USCG's proposed BW discharge standard rule , BWT systems approved by other Administrations may be recognized by the U.S., but the methods used by other laboratories and Administrations to assess effectiveness of B WT systems would be benchma r ked against these standardized protocols to ensu re an equivalent level of performance testing. As evidenced by the ongoing discussions at IMO, the re is a great deal of concern that compliance testing should be conducted in a standardized f ashion globally. As indicated by th i s short summary, the U

.S. is working to develop and ref i ne effective and practicab l e procedures and methods for assessing com p liance with the ballast water discharge standard, based on sound science. Advances in the U.S

. are be i ng shared within the IMO process, and hopefully will assist in the deve l opment of a globally acceptable uniform approach. (It must be remembered that the BWM Convention provides for sanct i ons to be established under the laws of the flag and port States involved, acco r ding to the circumstances. Given these provisions, one must be realist i c about the degree of uniformity that is possible on a global scale. That said, well validated , practicable and effective methods for assessing compliance will greatly help to achieve a high degree of uniformity among flag and port States.)



### 12

### in associ ati o n with

# ~ WAR.TSILA

### - state of the nation 9:50-10:10 

# US methods for the evaluation of BWM systems

Jon Stewart, President, Inte rnatio nal Maritim eTech nical Consultants
Jo n Stewart Is the President of International Maritim e Technology Consultants, I nc. After co-founding two maritime service and technology com p an i es, he formed the Consultancy In 2005, offering consulting services to government and Industry with a specialisation in the fields of ballast water and air emissions

. In addition to consulting work with various shipowners, ship operators, and technology developers he acts as a technology industry conduit to a variety of govern mental and regulatory bodies. He h as served on the US del eg ati on to the I nte rnational Maritime Organization as a technical adv i sor on ballast water issues f or the last four years

. 

# T he United States Coast Guard (USCG) has proposed

a regulation on Standards for Uving Organisms in Ships' BaiJast Water Discharged in US Waters. That rulemaking is in the final stages of administration review prior to p ublication in the Federal Register. In support of its proposed regul ations, the USCG has, for some time, been workin g to develop and refine procedures and meth ods for the analysis of ballast water d uring t esting of ballast water

managem ent systems and treated ballast wat er discharged by shlps. This work is being conducted in collaboration

wit h partner ag encies, includin g the Environmental Protection Agency (EP A) , the Naval Research Laboratory , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and th

e Maritime Adminis tration. Most significantly , Coast Guard and EPA collaborated under the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program to develop standard protocols for testing ballast water management systems in land-based test facilities. Two projects are being conducted in direct support of the ETV Program. First, a relatively large 'inter ca

l ibration' project is underway to exami ne the ability of diff erent test facilities to implement the ETV standard protocol in

a rigorous and comparable manner, with a high degree of quality assurance and quality control. Additionally, the EPA-USCG ETV partnership has initiated a second phase of work to develop a standardised protocol for shipboard tests of ballast water treatment systems. Other focused res earch proj ects are also underway. Firstly: the d evelo pment of a s ample processing apparatus to fa cilitate the collection of relatively Large volumes of water in the confined circumstances on board operational shi ps. Secondly: the development of

. improved methods for quantifying the n umber of li ving organisms in samples of ballast water, particularly for protists and zooplankton, using v ital stains and standardised analy ses of mo vement. This work is directed at achieving more standardisation and less potential for operator bias when enumerating live and dead p lankton. Third is the development of relatively rapid methods for assessing whether ship discharges meet regulatory limits. The inlcnt in this latter effort is to streamline compliance sampling and analy sis i n order to minimise resource burdens on regulatory agencies and delays and uncertainties to ship operators

. Finally , a project is underway to determine how various ballast water treatment processes affect the cor ros ion rate of ballast tanks and pip ing materia ls, and how to assess corrosion acceptability as part of type approval.