# 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 tr ansportation company operating on our nations inland waterway system, primarily along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Lower Mississippi River. Our headquarter s 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 Oper ators (“AWO”), the nati onal trade association for the U.S. tugboat, towboat and barge industry.

We fully support AWO’s efforts on this issu e, and would encourag e 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 un iform national standard for ballast water and other vessel discharges; (2) the la ck of a sufficient scientific a nd 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 to wing vessels and barges operating in the U.S. domestic trade; (4) the need to exempt all ot her 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 suffici ently robust and co mprehensive.

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 disc harge standards.2 The Preliminary Regulatory Analysis document accompanying the NPRM contains analysis that would seem to cl early indicate that the USCG doe s not believe that the proposed regulations would apply to inla nd 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 a nd 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 su bject 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 mo re 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 analys is obviously recognizes and ag rees with our industry’s ballasting practices. In partic ular, all barges, and most tow boats, simply do not discharge ballast water. Further, any inland river towboats owned or operated by Deloach which carry ballast water use only potable wa ter when ballasting or they ar e 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 prov ide the inland towing industry with sufficient flexibility to comply with the new standards by means other than installing expensiv e treatment systems. Those alternative options shoul d include the use of potable water as ballast or company policies expressly prohibiting the exchange of ba llast water in different Captain of the Port

Zones.

Thank you for kindly consid ering these comments.

Sincerely,

Z.David DeLoach

Owner-Deloach Marine Svc.LLC

cc: Jennifer Carpenter, AWO