1.1 These Guidelines for approval of ballast water
management systems are aimed primarily at Administrations, or their
designated bodies, in order to assess whether ballast water management
systems meet the standard as set out in regulation D-2 of the “International
Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast
Water and Sediments,” hereafter referred to as the “Convention”.
In addition, this document can be used as guidance for manufacturers
and shipowners on the evaluation procedure that equipment will undergo
and the requirements placed on ballast water management systems. These
Guidelines should be applied in an objective, consistent and transparent
way and their application should be evaluated periodically by the
Organization.
1.2 Articles and regulations referred to in these
Guidelines are those contained in the Convention.
1.3 The Guidelines include general requirements
concerning design and construction, technical procedures for evaluation
and the procedure for issuance of the Type Approval Certificate of
the ballast water management system.
1.4 These Guidelines are intended to fit within
an overall framework for evaluating the performance of systems that
includes the experimental shipboard evaluation of prototype systems
under the provisions of regulation D-4, approval of ballast water
management systems and associated systems that comply fully with the
requirements of the Convention, and port State control sampling for
compliance under the provisions of article 9 of the Convention.
1.5 The requirements of regulation D-3 stipulate
that ballast water management systems used to comply with the Convention
must be approved by the Administration, taking into account these
Guidelines. In addition to such ballast water management system approval,
as set forth in regulation A-2 and regulation B-3, the Convention
requires that discharges of ballast water from ships must meet the
regulation D-2 performance standard on an on-going basis. Approval
of a system is intended to screen-out management systems that would
fail to meet the standards prescribed in regulation D-2 of the Convention.
Approval of a system, however, does not ensure that a given system
will work on all vessels or in all situations. To satisfy the Convention,
a discharge must comply with the D-2 standard throughout the life
of the vessel.
1.6 The operation of ballast water management
systems should not impair the health and safety of the ship or personnel,
nor should it present any unacceptable harm to the environment or
to public health.
1.7 Ballast water management systems are required
to meet the standards of regulation D-2 and the conditions established
in regulation D-3 of the Convention. These Guidelines serve to evaluate
the safety, environmental acceptability, practicability and biological
effectiveness of the systems designed to meet these standards and
conditions. The cost effectiveness of type-approved equipment will
be used in determining the need for revisions of these Guidelines.
1.8 These Guidelines contain recommendations regarding
the design, installation, performance, testing environmental acceptability
and approval of ballast water management systems.
1.9 To achieve consistency in its application,
the approval procedure requires that a uniform manner of testing,
analysis of samples, and evaluation of results is developed and applied.
These Guidelines should be applied in an objective, consistent, and
transparent way; and their suitability should be periodically evaluated
and revised as appropriate by the Organization. New versions of these
Guidelines should be duly circulated by the Organization. Due consideration
should be given to the practicability of the ballast water management
systems.