BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

MARPOL requirements have to be incorporated in the national
legislation.
Whereas MARPOL only requires the reception of ships' wastes
(and subsequently the enforcement and control of discharge to
these facilities), it is the responsibility of the government
to regulate the treatment of these wastes. This is usually
done by national legislation and therefore enforcement and
control of these regulations should be part of the national
(or local) legal framework.
The enforcement and control of the use of reception facilities
will be successful only if the states which have ratified
MARPOL make a joint effort to do so. This should affect both
ports and ships, as the availability of adequate facilities in
ports will give a captain less reason to dispose of his waste
at sea.
There are various reasons for ships to use discharge methods
which do not comply with the regulations.
The most important ones are:
Lack of appropriate port reception facilities;
High prices charged by some of these facilities;
Undue delay at reception facilities;
Malfunction of alarm systems or oil/water separators
on board;
Rotting and smell problems caused by the long time
on board storage of garbage;
Lack of information.
As national (or local) legislation on port reception
facilities will apply to both reception and treatment,
enforcement and control actions can be categorised as follows:
Ships' compliance with the regulations on discharge
and disposal;
Reception facilities' and treatment facilities'
compliance with national and local regulations on
waste treatment and effluent quality.
Ships from states which have ratified the MARPOL convention
are obliged through their national legislation to comply with
the MARPOL regulations. On the other hand ships are not always
obliged to dispose used oil, sludge, chemicals or garbage in
any specific port, with the exception of prewashes. Which port
is used for waste disposal is always up to the captain or the
ship-owner.
Because of this, it is possible that a ship will leave the
port with slop tanks which are too full to reach the next port
without discharge en route, while the port authorities have no
means to prevent this.
Some indirect measures are possible for preventing this, by
addressing the personal responsibility of the captain. Ships
leaving a port with slop tanks which are too full in relation
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