Water Discharges

Vessels discharge Ballast water, Bilge- and Gray water (as well as Exhaust Gas Scrubber Wash water, for vessels with sulphur-scrubbers installed). If not carefully managed, these discharges have proven to be pollutive and to pose a high risk to biodiversity.

During the next five years, all 70.000 or so commercial vessels will be required to install equipment for their Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) that have to adhere to specific standards: the United States has developed the most comprehensive regulation yet and requires US Coast-Guard (USCG) type-approvals, as well as an annual maintenance monitoring program in line with strict requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Without these, vessels cannot obtain their VGP (Vessel General Permit) and cannot call US ports. At the same time, the IMO is finalizing its own set of global standards including renewed commissioning testing, that could hit shipping shortly (by September 2019 at the soonest).

Our Netherlands-based CU Water affiliate is qualified by the USCG as one of the seven leading Independent Laboratories (IL) for Type-Approvals of your BWMS. Combining the world-class expertise from CU Water with the strong execution by our own in-house network of local offices in 38 main ports along all key trade routes, we have developed a global water monitoring solution, with minimal interruptions for your vessel operations. The short notification time we require to deploy our teams, allows especially tramp shippers all necessary flexibility to (re)route vessels while remaining 100% VGP-compliant. Our team of experts is ensuring that our high quality solution adheres to all relevant  IMO regulations.

At the moment, VPC has performed its VGP Compliance Monitoring in 38+ key ports along the trade route.

Please reach out to us to see if your required location can also be covered.