Updates to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Definitions and Exclusions
Key claim: EPA proposes that ships and other floating craft not fixed to the seabed would no longer need a Clean Water Act NPDES permit to add pollutants in the contiguous zone or the ocean.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Environmental Protection Agency) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to revise a regulatory definition under the Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting regulations pertaining to discharges in the contiguous zone and ocean. The proposal would revise the regulatory definition of “discharge of a pollutant” to reflect and faithfully implement the statutory exclusion of vessels and other floating craft that add pollutants in the contiguous zone or the ocean from inclusion in the definition of “discharge of a pollutant” or “discharge”, and thus, from National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program requirements. The proposed rulemaking would also make conforming and clarifying changes to the NPDES regulatory exclusion for vessels and other floating craft. The effect of these changes would be that the addition of pollutants by a vessel or other floating craft in the contiguous zone or the ocean that is not secured to the seabed would not be a discharge and would not require CWA NPDES permit authorization to add pollutants to those waters.
Why this matters
The proposal would remove a category of ocean and contiguous-zone vessel discharges from Clean Water Act NPDES permitting, reducing compliance burdens for shipping and offshore operators while shifting oversight of those discharges to other regimes (e.g., MARPOL/APPS, Coast Guard rules, or the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act framework for incidental discharges). Environmental groups are likely to argue it narrows federal water-quality protections in U.S. ocean waters, while industry views it as clarifying long-contested jurisdictional overlap.