Onshore ballast water management systems: National perspectives

Abstract

The present paper focuses on ballast water management systems (BWMS) in line with the Ballast Water Management Convention, aiming to prevent marine pollution from harmful alien species transported through ships’ ballast water. Three approaches of BWMS are considered: Ballast water exchange, Onboard and Onshore systems. Solutions regarding ballast water reception and treatment are proposed, including several options: for ports that are equipped with ballast water reception facilities (BWRFs); for ports not equipped with BWRFs and for companies with onshore facilities (OBWRFs).Thoroughly examined in the paper is the applicability of national onshore BWMS inclusive specifically of the expected users of the OBWRFs; suggested stakeholder groups involved in the process and their responsibilities; step by step procedure; documentation of the procedure related to the main parties - the Shipowner/ captain, Port authority, the company with OBWRFs. It has been found out that OBWRFs are more suitable to be applied on national level, bearing in mind that most of the Bulgarian ports are limited to increase their working area. Further research should be carried out about the possible location of the OBWRFs with regard to the necessary infrastructure, equipment, restricted zones, etc.