Section 3: Steps to Control Discharge

  3 This section should ensure that the provisions of regulation 37 of Annex I and/or regulation 17 of Annex II of MARPOL 73/78 regarding steps to control discharge are complied with and should include information relating to the following:

• 3.1 Operational spills

  This section should contain ship-specific information concerning actions to be taken in response to operational spills (see section 2.5.2.1). As a minimum, procedures to address spills resulting from pipe leakage, tank overflow and hull leakage should be included.

• 3.2 Spills resulting from casualties

  This section should contain ship-specific and company-specific information concerning actions to be taken to address, as a minimum, the following casualty scenarios: grounding, fire/explosion, collision (with fixed or moving object), hull failure, excessive list, containment system failure, submerged/foundered, wrecked/stranded, hazardous vapour release, and especially for ships certified to carry NLSs, dangerous reactions of cargo, other dangerous cargo release, loss of tank environmental control and cargo contamination yielding a hazardous condition (see section 2.5.2.2 of the Guidelines). This section should also provide guidance on priority actions to be taken (see Section 2.5 of the Guidelines). Consideration should be given to providing some of the necessary information in the form of checklists/flowcharts where considered applicable. An example of presentation of information relating to response activities and personnel responsibilities is given in table 2 below:

 Where appropriate this section should provide a list of information required for making damage stability and damage longitudinal strength assessments.