Nati nal

MAINTENANCE & REPAIR, INC.

December 2, 2009 

FILED VIA REGULATIONS.GOV 

Docket Management Facility 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

West Building Ground Floor 

Room W12-140 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

Re: Standard for Living Organisms in Ships’ Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters 

(Docket ID No. USCG-2001-10486) 

To Whom It May Concern: 

I am writing on behalf of National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. (NMR) concerning the U.S. 

Coast Guard’s (“USCG”) August 28, 2009 Ballast Water Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

(“NPRM”). National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. is an inland marine transportation 

company operating on the Upper Mississippi River. Our corporate headquarters are in 

South Point, Ohio with our base of operations in Hartford, Illinois. We operate a fleet of 

towboats and tank barges and employ 270 persons. National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. 

is an active member of the American Waterways Operators (“AWO”), the national trade 

association for the U.S. tugboat, towboat and barge industry. 

National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. fully supports AWO’s efforts on this issue, and would 

encourage the USCG to pay close attention to the comments submitted by AWO in this 

rulemaking process, particularly as those comments relate to: (1) the need for a uniform 

national standard for ballast water and other vessel discharges; (2) the lack of a sufficient 

scientific and technical support in the record for the proposed regulations; (3) the need to 

expressly provide in the final regulations that ballast water treatment is not required for 

towing vessels and barges operating in the U.S. domestic trade; (4) the need to exempt 

all other vessel operations that do not pose a risk of introducing invasive species; (5) the 

need to eliminate the two-tier approach or provide lifetime grandfathering for vessels with 

installed treatment systems; and (6) the need to ensure that the proposed practicability 

review is sufficiently robust and comprehensive. 

FOOT OF HAWTHORNE STREET  P.O. BOX 38  HARTFORD, ILLINOIS 62048 

618-254-7451(IL)  800-325-3625(Outside IL)  314-355-4400(St. Louis) 
December 2, 2009 

Page 2 

For our part, National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. would request that the final rule 

expressly state that inland river towboats and barges are not subject to the new ballast 

water discharge standards. 

Apparent in the Preliminary Regulatory Analysis document accompanying the NPRM 

contains analysis that would seem to clearly indicate that the USCG does not believe that 

the proposed regulations would apply to inland towing vessels and barges. 

Specifically, on page 37 of that document, the USCG explains: 

 We have not included the following vessels in the affected 

 population that would incur additional costs from the proposed 

 BWDS based on consultation with the ballast water program 

 personnel and USCG expertise: ... 

 Vessels less than or equal to 100 ft. Vessels in this size range 

 typically operate in more sheltered environments and do not load 

 and discharge ballast. Their stability characteristics generally 

 accommodate the amount and type of cargo they carry, precluding 

 the need to use ballast water as a stability enhancer. 

 Some towing vessels (tugs towing behind and general). These 

 vessels do not carry cargo and, thus, do not experience drastic 

 changes in draft that would affect their stability characteristics. 

 Therefore, they do not typically load and discharge ballast water. 

 River vessels. Rivers are usually very sheltered environments 

 having limited wind and wave spectra. While current conditions 

 play a very large role in sailing and towing characteristics, 

 ballasting is not generally used to improve these. The operations of 

 the river barge trade make installed ballast water systems very rare 

 and loading and discharging ballast water through void tank main 

 deck openings, without installed piping and pumps, would be a 

 costly and extremely time-consuming evolution. 

On page 12 of this analysis the USCG states: “Approximately 7,575 vessels from the 

current vessel population, of which 2,616 are U.S. vessels, would be required to meet the 

BWDS” – a statistic which would clearly indicate that the USCG does not believe that 

inland river towboats and barges should, or even would be subject to the new standards. 
December 2, 2009 

Page 3 

This USCG preliminary analysis obviously recognizes and agrees with our industry’s 

ballasting practices. In particular, our barges and towboats simply do not discharge 

ballast water, for many of the reasons cited in the Preliminary Regulatory Analysis. 

Further any inland river towboat or barge owned or operated by National Maintenance & 

Repair, Inc. which would carry ballast water would use only potable water when ballasting 

or they are otherwise expressly prohibited by company policy from exchanging ballast 

water in different Captain of the Port Zones. Unfortunately, the text of the NPRM is not 

as clear on these points as the supporting documentation, so additional clarification in the 

final rule would be beneficial. 

To the extent that the USCG decides to apply the new standards to inland towboats or 

barges, the final rule should provide the inland towing industry with sufficient flexibility to 

comply with the new standards by means other than installing expensive treatment 

systems. Those alternative options should include the use of potable water as ballast or 

company policies expressly prohibiting the exchange of ballast water in different Captain 

of the Port Zones. 

Thank you for kindly considering these comments. 

Sincerely, 

John W. Moren 

Executive VP, Administration 

National Maintenance & Repair, Inc. 

cc: Jennifer Carpenter, AWO