Exemption from the Ballast Water Management Convention – Technical Guidelines for Risk Assessment
On 8 September 2017, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (London, 2004 – BWM Convention) entered into force internationally. The Convention establishes global rules aimed at preventing and minimising the risks arising from the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens by ships through routine ballast water management operations.
Pending the ratification of the Convention by Italy, an in-depth technical study was initiated at the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, in cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the General Command of the Port Captaincies – Coast Guard, and ISPRA, as well as other national research institutions (ISS and CNR). The aim of this work was to support the Administration in addressing the many challenges posed by the implementation of the new and complex international obligations. Among the issues to be addressed, ensuring a uniform and scientifically sound implementation of the international exemption regime provided for under the Convention (Annex, Regulation A-4) emerged as a priority.
The BWM Convention provides for the possibility of exempting, in waters under national jurisdiction, ships of any flag operating between specified ports or locations from compliance with ballast water discharge standards or other measures adopted pursuant to the Convention. Exemptions may be granted for a maximum period of five years for routes connecting predetermined ports and locations — provided that no mixing with ballast water or sediments from other sources occurs — and only following a risk assessment of the potential impact that the specific exemption may have on human health, the environment, property, or marine resources. Through cooperation among ISPRA, ISS and CNR-IAS, and at the request of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the relevant knowledge and the main technical, methodological and operational elements required to conduct the risk assessment underpinning the adoption of exemption measures were collected and developed into guidelines. The contents of the guidelines were discussed and adapted to administrative requirements within the interministerial technical working group on ballast water, established within the Directorate-General for Nature Protection of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.
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