By Kavinda Ratnapala.
This is Part 1 of a multi-part suite of articles which cover the illegal practice of bilge dumping, its impact, the regulatory regime within which the activity takes place on the high seas and incentives within the global shipping industry which is party to the most abrasive of environmental crimes.
Colombo- It is almost a given that the device through which you read this account had an oceanic voyage as a part of its history before landing on your palm or desk. What I mean by this is that, as nearly 90% of traded goods are carried by sea, the vessels that constitute the merchant navy, are perhaps a class of the most consequential innovations in human history. These vessels are in turn named after their built purpose with their nomenclature ranging general cargo vessel, container vessel, bulk carrier vessel or chemical tankers amongst others. While each of these vessels are unique in its own right, mandating varying standards of engineering excellence for not only its creation but also for its operation. One commonality they share is a noxious mixture which is a byproduct of its usage and so inevitable, given the dependence of these machines on varying fossil fuels and lubricants.
Through the suite of articles that will follow this essay, I will attempt to inform the reader of the problem of bilge water dumping. The term is used in the shipping industry, to identify the noxious combinations of liquids being dumped in the oceans, as such, is the ignominious and literal dirty secret of the global shipping industry. The issue at hand is not the bilge water itself but the actions which surround the practice that leads to its illegal discharge into the high seas. While the public at large is well versed in the highly publicized and visible oil pollution incidents, such as the cinematised Deepwater Horizons Oil Spill. Of bilge water dumping, the public knows little. This mind you, is by design as shipping magnates have taken every effort to avoid any mentions of the act or term by obfuscation and reference to more standard all-encompassing terms such as pollution. For evidence of this one need only refer to any of the disclosure reports of the major shipping lines of the world
Without a doubt, the primary challenge faced in attempting to tackle this topic, let alone communicate this environmental externality is the paucity of current and verifiable information due to the highly secretive nature of these rackets. Most of the functional information of this activity comes from investigations conducted by the likes of Interpol, satellite empowered open-source investigations and most critically whistleblowers.
What constitutes bilge water?
First, a distinction must be made between ballast water and bilge water. While both are stored on ships they could not be more different in form or function. The former constitutes fresh or saltwater and is used to provide stability and manoeuvrability during a voyage. The latter is created as a by-product when ships rumble into activity. Starting in the engine room, as a ship makes its journey various used semi-solids, oils, lubricants, detergents, grease, cleaning fluids and other mixed substances are collected and stored in tanks. The combinations stored include toxic organic chemicals such as benzene, chloroform, hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, and naphthalene, an array of carcinogens and even toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and selenium. And depending on the size of the vessel the bilge collected daily can range from a few dozen tons to several hundred tons. A 2010 analysis by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, found potentially significant concentrations in bilgewater across all pollutants types from several classes of ships.
While there is a web of legalese that constitute maritime law the rule on discharges of bilge is clear. Whereas bilge discharge is permitted under the Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78), the discharge must be no greater than 15 parts per million of oil in water. The rule of thumb here is that if the discharge is visible on the sea surface, then the discharge is illegal as the oil content is considered to be greater than 15 parts per million.
The Scale of the Issue.
While the paucity of information is a challenge in getting a grasp of the genuine extent of bilge water dumping, a compounding factor has been the disaggregated manner in which the issue has been reported. For instance, CleanSeaNet a satellite-based oil spill monitoring and vessel detection service operated by the European Maritime Safety Agency, or EMSA found in 2007, 44,383 possible illegal discharges of oily waste in European waters alone. With each suspected spill covering an area of roughly 5Km2 or some 700 football pitches. A 2010 report by Oceana—an ocean advocacy organisation—asserted that illegal dumping accounted for between 666,000 and over 2.5 million tons of hydrocarbons (oil) of marine pollution per year. EMSA data from 2020 reported 7,672 verified spills in European waters, however, this number pails in comparison to the estimates by the ocean advocacy organisation Marine Defender, which estimates that “Intention(al) dumping from ships accounts for 46% of the oil entering the world’s oceans from human sources each year. This is the equivalent of 8 new Exxon Valdez oil spills each and every year”, which adds up to approximately 117,638 million tons.
Placing a face on the Issue.
As with other entrenched problems the primary obstacle in dealing with the challenge posed by bilge water dumping is the externalization of costs while the benefits wholly accrue to the shipowner. In essence a tragedy of the commons.
Perhaps one of the clearest instance of bilge water dumping occurred in 2019 when the Singaporean tanker, Zao Galaxy was boarded by the US Coast Guard which discovered evidence of bilge dumping. Using portable drums, pipes and flanges to bypass the vessel’s oil-water separator, alarms and automatic stopping devices mandated by MARPOL—for all vessels over 10,000 gross tonnages. The ship’s operators had made discharges into the ocean, falsified the oil logbook and attempted to mislead investigators. As the articles which follow elucidate, owners are providing a range of incentives for operators to not only skirt the law but act in open defiance notwithstanding globally established maritime laws relating to pollution such as MARPOL, the Bunker Convention and the Oslo Dumping Convention.
In the essays that follow the multi-dimensionality of bilge dumping will be explored by asking questions on the after-effects of bilge water dumping, grasping the negative incentives that lead to the practice and the mechanics of dumping, the preventative measures being undertaken and what the future holds for the practice and their perpetrators. Through this systematic approach to this transnational challenge, the goal will not be to assign blame to any one corporation or another but uncover the systemic and situational exigencies that have enabled a deplorable practice to sustain well into the era of the sustainable development goals even while companies adopt the lofty goals of such charters into their own corporate obligations.
You can read Part 1.1 which explores bilge dumping in Sri Lanka waters here .
Kavinda Ratnapala, has worked in a range of Corporate and Not for Profit roles from which he ideates and writes in the Sustainability and Governance space whilst occasionally dabbling in geopolitics of interest. He holds a Masters in Environment and Sustainability with a Bachelors in International Relations.
You can email the author at kavindareads@gmail.com or find him on Twitter under the handle @kavinda937 or connect on LinkedIn.
