EPA's Vessel General Permit and Small Vessel General

and ecological consequences of exposing endangered or threatened species or designated
critical habitat to stressors from discharges at concentrations, intensities, durations, or
frequencies that could produce physical, physiological, behavioral, or ecological
responses, given their pre-existing demographic and ecological condition.
6. EPA has a mechanism to reliably determine whether and to what degree operators have
complied with the conditions, restrictions, or mitigation measures required of the VGPs.
EPA will develop and implement monitoring and compliance plans for the VGPs. They
will gather, review, and analyze inspection data and provide a summary of these results to
the Services annually. EPA will also provide training and resources for States and the US
Coast Guard to facilitate their inspection and enforcement capabilities.
7. EPA has a mechanism to prevent or minimize listed resources’ exposure to stressors in
discharges if: (1) EPA finds that these stressors occur at concentrations, durations, or
frequencies that are potentially harmful to individual listed organisms, populations, or
species; or (2) EPA identifies that the discharges lead directly or indirectly to ecological
consequences that are potentially harmful to individual listed organisms, populations,
species or primary constituent elements of designated critical habitat. EPA has
committed to modify its action as appropriate if new information (including inadequate
protection for species or low levels of compliance) becomes available. Modifications
may include additional actions or requirements, reopening of the permits, and reinitiation
of Section 7 consultation.
This programmatic review describes EPA’s ability to insure that vessel discharges into waters of
the U.S. are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species or threatened
species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat that has been
designated for those species; however, we must address our final area of concern: exposure.
Given exposure to ANS invasions and pollutants, listed resources are likely to be adversely
affected, resulting in reduced viability of populations and species. Therefore, it is imperative
that EPA prevent the exposure of listed resources to vessel-mediated ANS invasions and
pollutants. There is a small likelihood that listed resources would be exposed to ANS or harmful
concentrations of pollutants. To reduce this likelihood of exposure even further, EPA will
implement the following four-step feed-back mechanism: permit requirements, monitoring and
collecting new information, additional actions to reduce any unacceptable risks, and reopening
the permit and/or reinitiating consultation as appropriate to reassess permit requirements.
First, EPA includes several requirements in their VGPs to reduce the exposure of listed resources
to ANS and pollutants, For ANS, EPA requires vessel owners/operators to “minimize the
transport of attached living organisms” into waters of the U.S. For vessels with ballast water
capacity greater than 8 cubic meters, EPA requires that discharges meet numeric ballast water
standards. They require vessel owners/operators to minimize hull husbandry and avoid
discharging ballast water in designated critical habitat, when feasible. For pollutants, ANS
requires that vessel owners/operators meet technology-based and water-quality based effluent
limits.
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