Page 30 - FLI 2013 - 4th Quarter

FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL Quarter Four 2013 30
T he roots of the
Vessel General Permit
(VGP) can be traced
back to 2005, when a
U.S. court which was
hearing a case between the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and a group of environmen-
talists ruled that EPA exceeded its
limits by exempting the “incidental
discharge” from environmental
regulations which vessels were
required to obey.
The decision was upheld in a
higher court of law in 2008, follow-
ing which EPA made the first draft
of the VGP, which came into effect
on February 2009 and ends on Dec.
19, 2013. On the same day, new
regulations will come into effect for
an initial period of five years.
Whowill be affected?
Table 1 shows a pictorial
representation of vessels that would
come under the purview of the
new VGP. EPA estimates that about
60,000 domestic and 12,000 foreign
vessels will be affected by these new
regulations. The jurisdiction of the
VGP will extend to all “waters of
the U.S.” 1
Components of VGP
The new VGP will cover
several aspects, including but not
limited to the following:
 defining specific numeric limits
on the different types of discharges
 bilge water discharge require-
ments
 better recordkeeping
 the use of EALs
It is the last factor, namely
EALs, that is the main focus of this
article.
Scale of the problem
To get an idea why it is neces-
sary to change over to EALs, let’s
take a look at some simple figures.
According to the U.S. EPA, the
average consumption of stern tube
oil (which means oil that leaks
into the sea) is about 2.6 liters per
day. Multiply this by the number
of small and large sailing vessels
and it is not difficult to gauge the
amount of leakage. If this goes
unchecked, the damage that would
occur in the long run would be
irreparable.
Moreover this is just one of the
oil-sea interfaces, the junctions be-
tween the vessel and the sea where
there is a probability of oil seeping
into the oceans. There are numer-
ous such places including but not
limited to thrusters, stabilizers
and controllable pitch propellers,
to name a few. Hence, the overall
effect of the total quantity of con-
ventional oil going into the high
seas can be well imagined.
In fact, the total figure of
F E A T U R E 专题报道
VGP 2013
and the use of environmentally
acceptable lubricants in marine vessels
及船用环保型润滑油
Requirements regarding
the use of Environmental-
ly Acceptable Lubricants
(EAL) on all commercial
vessels entering U.S. ports
will become stringent
after Dec.19, 2013.
2013年12月19日起，凡进入
美国港口的商船所使用的环
保型润滑油（EAL）要求将更
加严格。
作者：Rakesh Dogra
1 Final 2013 VGP Factsheet, U.S. EPA
美国环保署2013 VGP信息最终稿。
Recreational Vessels
Armed Forces Vessels
Others
Not applicable
Not applicable
>79 ft length
Under VGP
≤ 79 ft length
Under sVGP
Table 1: Scope of VGP/sVGP
表一：VGP/sVGP的范围
休闲船只：不适用
武装船只：不适用
其他：长度大于79英尺，受VGP管辖
长度小于79英尺，受sVGP管辖