ABS has released a new Guide for Ballast Water Treatment, which will aid vessel owners and operators in preparing for compliance with the IMO’s International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004.

The Convention is designed to provide a unified instrument to prevent, minimise and ultimately eliminate the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms via ships’ ballast water and sediments. As of November 1, thirty member states representing 26.44 percent of world merchant shipping tonnage had ratified the Convention, against a required 30 states representing 35 percent of the world gross tonnage.

The newly released guide has been developed to assist owners in understanding the classification requirements pertaining to the Convention. In addition to the installation parameters required for any ABS-classed vessel utilising an IMO member state type approved ballast water treatment system, the Guide offers owners two optional notations to demonstrate further due diligence in their ballast water management practices.

The tiered notations BWT and BWT+ will bring the ballast water treatment system under survey wherein the class society will review the system for compliance with the Guide, confirm the installation design, conduct a survey during installation, periodically evaluate the onboard ballast water management system and perform shipboard function tests. The BWT+ notation signifies that the installed treatment system has been surveyed by an ABS surveyor at the manufacturing facility.

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