Tech Solutions to Yachts Dumping Water in Port

The challenge facing vessels is how to handle and treat these waste waters in the most environmentally sensitive yet cost effective manner whilst ensuring compliance with relevant legislation.

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The treatment of these wastewaters is the subject of a number of MEPC (Marine Environment Protection Committee) resolutions but knowing how to effectively meet these requirements can be challenging.

For a start, there are numerous suppliers of wastewater treatment systems and knowing which one would be best suited to your vessels requirements and operation can be a challenge.

Secondly, understanding where you are permitted to discharge treated wastewater overboard and the costs of disposing of these wastewaters whilst in port can impact the operational costs of a vessel.

Wastewater treatment technology

From a wastewater treatment system perspective, there are a range of options available for managing wastewater, depending on the size of the vessel and manner in which it is used.

For superyachts, these options require the vessel to have an onboard sewage treatment plant suitable for treating black or black and grey water. The standards to which treatment is required depends on the date that the treatment system was installed, with the latest resolution (MEPC.227(64)) applying to all treatment systems installed after 1 January 2016.

Under the MEPC resolutions, is it a requirement to have a sewage treatment system onboard that is Type Approved by Lloyds Register and it must be installed, operated and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications.

However, the testing of compliance with the regulations is the duty of the vessel and ultimately the onboard Engineers and this is not well policed. The onus, therefore, is on the shipyards to ensure they have selected the right sewage treatment system for the vessels needs and on the Engineers to ensure that this system performs within the consent limits under normal operation.

Solutions

It is clear that if we want to maintain the quality of our marine environment we must prevent the discharge of untreated wastewaters and the superyacht industry has a significant role to play in achieving this. 

Selection of the right sewage treatment system for each vessel is the first place to start, and there are many technical solutions to choose from, but just as important is the ensuring this system is optimised for each bespoke vessel, that the system is operated correctly, that the engineers receive comprehensive training and support and that interior crew receive regular training on complimentary product use

. Better policing and incentives from marinas and ports would also help to set a precedence and reward those vessels with effectively operating sewage treatment systems.

Read full article: Super Yacht News

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Taxonomy

• Sewage Treatment
• Ballast Water
• Sewage
• Oceanographic Survey
• Waste Disposal
• Waste Management