In order to better protect marine environment, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine have jointly issued amended Discharge Standard for Water Pollutants from Ships(GB 3552-2018) (hereinafter “Standard”), which has become effective from 01.07.2018. We hereby summarize key points of the amended Standard as below for your kind reference:
Provisions of “Standard”
1. Scope of application
The Standard stipulates the control requirement and testing requirement of discharging oily wastewater and sewage, the control requirement of discharging waste water containing noxious liquid substances and garbage from ships, as well as the implementation and supervision of this Standard.
This Standard shall be applied to the supervision and management of ships discharging oily wastewater, sewage, waste water containing noxious liquid substances and garbage from ships to environment water bodies of PRC and sea water areas under Chinese Jurisdiction. This Standard is not applied to temporary discharge for ensuring safety of vessel and salvage of life.
This standard is also applicable to pollutant discharge allowed by Law. The management of discharging pollutants to inland water and other special protected areas shall be in accordance with Marine Environment Protection Law, Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, Environment Protection Law, Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Vessel-induced Pollution to the Marine Environment.
2. Discharge control requirement of discharging oily wastewater
(1) The discharging of oily wastewater shall be carried out in accordance with following table.
| Type of pollutants | Water areas | Type of ship | Requirements | |
| Oily wastewater from machinery space | Inland Water | Ships built before 01.01.2021 | From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility or discharge subject to (2) described below | |
| Ships built after 01.01.2021 | Collect and discharge to reception facility | |||
| Coastal water | Ships with gross tonnage of 400 or more | From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility or discharge subject to (2) described below | ||
| Ships with gross tonnage less than 400 | Non-fishing vessel | From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility or discharge subject to (2) described below | ||
| Fishing vessel |
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| Oily wastewater containing oil cargo residues | Inland water | All oil tanker | From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility | |
| Coastal water | Oil tanker with gross tonnage of 150 or above |
From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility, or discharge during navigation when complying with below requirements:
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| Oil tanker with gross tonnage less than 150 |
From 01.07.2018, collect and discharge to reception facility |
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(2) Oily wastewater from machinery space shall be discharged in accordance with following table and the discharging operation is required to be conducted during navigation.
| Pollutant | Limitation | Monitoring location |
| Petroleum (mg/L) | 15 | Water outlet of oily wastewater processing unit |
3. Discharge control requirements of discharging sewage
3.1 From 01.07. 2018, ship with gross tonnage of 400or above and ship with capacity of 15 passengers or above, is required to fulfill below requirements respectively.
3.1.1In the area of inland waters and coast waters that less than 3 nautical miles away from the nearest shore, sewage shall be treated as per below, and is prohibited to directly discharge to environmental water bodies.
a. using the collection devices onboard to collect and then discharge to reception facility.
b. Using the onboard sewage treatment device to dispose sewage in order to meet requirement specified in 3.2, and then discharge disposed sewage during the voyage.
3.1.2In the sea area that more than 3 nautical miles away from the nearest shore, the discharge requirement of discharging sewages is shown on below table
| Waters areas | Control requirement |
|
3Nautical miles<distance from the nearest shore≤12 Nautical miles |
Both below requirements should be satisfied: (1) usingequipment to break solids and then discharge after disinfection (2) navigating speed not less than 4 knots, and the discharge rate of sewage not exceed the maximum discharge rate of the corresponding speed. |
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distance from the nearest shore >12 Nautical miles |
Navigating speed not less than 4 knots, and the discharge rate of sewage not exceed the maximum discharge rate of the corresponding sailing speed. |
3.2. In inland waters and sea water areas within 3 nautical miles away from the nearest land, according to the type of ships and the time of installation/replacement of sewage treatment equipment, the corresponding pollutant discharge limits of sewage after treated by onboard sewage treatment device are shown as below
3.2.1Shipsthathave installed/replaced sewage treatment devices before 01.01.2012, the discharging limits of sewage should be in line with below table
| No | Pollutants | Limits | Monitoring location |
| 1 | BOD5 (mg/L) | 50 | Water outlet of sewage treatment facility |
| 2 | Suspended matter（SS）(mg/L) | 150 | |
| 3 | Heat resistant coliform group（Piece/L） | 2500 |
3.2.2 Ships that installed/replaced sewage treatment devices after 01.01.2012, the discharging limits of sewage should be in line with below table(except the passenger ships)
| No | Pollutants Items | Limits | Monitoring location |
| 1 | BOD5 (mg/L) | 25 | Water outlet of sewage treatment facility |
| 2 | Suspended matter（SS）(mg/L) | 35 | |
| 3 | Heat resistant coliform group（Piece/L） | 1000 | |
| 4 | CODcr (mg/L) | 125 | |
| 5 | PH（Dimensionless） | 6-8.5 | |
| 6 | Total chlorine (mg/L) | ＜0.5 |
Passenger ships that have installed/replaced sewage treatment devices after 01.01.2021,the discharging limits of sewage should be in line with below table
| No | Pollutants Items | Limits | Monitoring location |
| 1 | BOD5 (mg/L) | 20 | Water outlet of sewage treatment facility |
| 2 | Suspended matter（SS）(mg/L) | 20 | |
| 3 | Heat resistant coliform group（Piece/L） | 1000 | |
| 4 | CODcr (mg/L) | 60 | |
| 5 | PH（Dimensionless） | 6-8.5 | |
| 6 | Total chlorine (mg/L) | ＜0.5 | |
| 7 | total nitrogen (mg/L) | 20 | |
| 8 | ammonia nitrogen (mg/L) | 15 | |
| 9 |
total phosphorus (mg/L) |
1.0 |
3.3Discharging sewage is prohibited in the conservation areas of drinking water and the control measures taken by ship side in this respect should be recorded according to relevant regulations.
5. Discharge control requirement of discharging waste water containing noxious liquid substances
4.1 The discharge of waste water containing noxious liquid substances along the coast water shall be carried out according to below table.
| The waste water contains any of the following toxic liquid substances. | Discharge control requirements |
|
（1）substances of category X （2）high viscosity or solidified substance of category Y （3）substances of category Ywhich have not been discharged according to the prescribed procedures （4）substances of category Zwhich have been discharged according to the prescribed procedures |
If the prewashing can not be exempted, ship should conduct prewashing according to the relevant procedures before leaving the port of discharge, and the prewashing water of holds should be discharged to the reception facility. The concentration of substances of category X should be reduced to less than or equal to 0.1% (mass percentage) after prewashing. After the concentration has reached above requirement, the remaining sewage should be discharged to the reception facility until the hold is empty. After prewashing, the waste water containing noxious liquid substances generated from further water injection should be discharged according to 4.2 of this standard. |
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（1）substances of category Y that have been discharged according to the prescribed procedures （2）substances of category Z that have been discharged according to the prescribed procedures |
In accordance with requirement under 4.2 of this standard. Ship that built before 01.01.2007 can be exempted from the requirement under 6.2C) of this standard when discharging waste water containing substances with category Zor provisional discharging waste water containing substances with category Z. |
4.2 Ships that carry out discharging operation along the coast, are required to discharge waste water containing noxious liquid substances by complying all below requirements after prewashing, effective sweeping as well as ventilation:
a) Discharging said waste water in the sea area that12 nautical miles or above away from the nearest land and with a depth of not less than 25 meters.
b) Discharging said waste water during navigation, the speed of self-propelled ship should not less than 7 knots whilst the speed of non-self-propelled ship should not less than 4 knots.
c) The discharge rate should not exceed the maximum designated speed when discharging said waste water through outlet under waterline.
6. Discharge control requirements of discharging garbage from ships
5.1 Dumpinggarbage from ships in inland water is forbidden. In the area where discharging of ship’s waste is allowed, the corresponding discharge control requirements shall be complied according to the category of the garbage and the nature of the sea area.
5.1.1In any area, plastic waste, waste edible oil, living waste, incinerator ash, abandoned fishing gear and electronic waste shall be collected and discharged into the reception facilities.
5.1.2 Food wastes shall be collected and discharged into the reception facilities within sea areas with 3 nautical miles away from the nearest land.Food wastes that comminuted to a diameter of less than 25 millimeters can be discharged in the sea areas from 3 to 12 nautical miles away from the nearest land.Food wastes can be discharged in the sea area over 12 nautical miles away from the nearest land.
5.1.3 The residue of goods shall be collected and discharged into the reception facilities in the sea areas within 12 nautical miles (including) away from the nearest land. The residue of goods that do not harm the marine environment can be discharged in the sea areas over 12 nautical miles (including) away from the nearest land.
5.1.4 The animal carcass shall be collected and discharged into the reception facilities within 12 nautical miles (including) away from the nearest land.The animal carcass can be discharged in the sea areas over 12 nautical miles (including) away from the nearest land.
5.1.5 In any sea area, the clean water of cargo hold, deck and external surface containing additives that do not harm the marine environment can be discharged within 12 nautical miles (including) away from the nearest land. Other operating wastes should be collected and discharged into the reception facilities.
5.2 In any sea area, the discharging control requirement of garbage mixed by different types should satisfy the discharge control requirement of each types of garbage at the same time.
Legal Consequences
Ships in violation of above discharge requirement may be subject to relevant administrative punishment, such as penalty, according to relevant law/legislation, details of which are listed as below for your kind reference.
- According to article 73 of Marine Environment Protection Law, in the case of any of the following acts in violation of the provisions of this Law, the department empowered by this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control shall order the violator to stop the illegal act and take corrective action within a prescribed time limit or order the violator to take such measures as restricting production or suspending production for rectification, and impose a fine thereon. Where the violator refuses to take corrective action, the department that makes the punishment decision in accordance with the law may impose continuous fines thereon in the amount of the original fine for each day from the next day after the violator is ordered to take corrective action. If the circumstances are serious, the violator shall be ordered to stop operations or be closed down with the approval of the competent people's government:
(1) Discharging into any sea area any pollutants or any other substances which is prohibited by this Law. A fine of not less than RMB 30,000 but not more than 200,000 shall be imposed;
(2) Failing to discharge pollutants into the sea in accordance with the provisions of this Law, or discharging pollutants in excess of standards or total discharge volume control indicators. A fine not less than 20,000 but not more than 100,000 shall be imposed.
- Under article 90 of Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law any ship dumping garbage or discharging the residual oil or waste oil of the vessel to waters, the maritime safety administration or the competent fishery department shall, according to its own functions, order the violator to stop the violation, and impose a fine of not less than 10,000 but not more than 100,000 on the violator. If any water pollution is caused, the violator shall be ordered to take treatment measures within a prescribed time limit to eliminate the pollution, and be fined not less than 20,000 but not more than 200,000. If the violator fails to take treatment measures within the prescribed time limit, the maritime safety administration or the competent fishery department may, according to its own functions, designate an entity capable of treatment to do it with the required expenses to be borne by the vessel.
- According to article 45 of Provisions of the People’s Republic of China on the Administration of the Prevention and Control of Vessel-Induced Pollution to the Inland Water Environment, ship discharges sewage or sewage with oil into any inland water area beyond the standards or ship discharges noxious liquid substances and their residues or ballast water, tank washing water, and other mixtures containing such substances into inland water areas, the maritime safety administration shall order it to take corrective action, and impose a fine of not less than 20,000 nor more than 30,000 on it.
Sources:HUATAI INSURANCE AGENCY
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