Deloach Marine Services, LLC 

P.O.Box 576, Port Allen, LA, 70767 Telephone 225-336-9933, FAX 225-336-9936 

November 30, 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: Standards 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 Deloach Marine Service, LLC, concerning the U.S. Coast 

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

(“NPRM”). Deloach is an inland marine transportation company operating on our nations 

inland waterway system, primarily along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Lower 

Mississippi River. Our headquarters and our base of operations is in Port Allen, Louisiana. 

We operate a fleet of 12 towboats and employ approximately 120 persons. Deloach is an 

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

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

We fully support 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. 

For our part, Deloach request that the final rule should expressly state that inland river 

towboats and barges are not subject to the new ballast water discharge standards. 
2

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. 

 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” 

As there are over 7,000 inland towboats and over 25,000 barges operating on our inland 

waterway system, this statistic 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. They 

did not even include them in the analysis. 

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. 
3

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

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

ballast water. Further, any inland river towboats owned or operated by Deloach which carry 

ballast water 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, 

Z.David DeLoach 

Owner-Deloach Marine Svc.LLC 

cc: Jennifer Carpenter, AWO