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DE RUEHLO #7695/01 3041645
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 311645Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY LONDON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0159
INFO RUWDQAC/COMDT COGARD WASHINGTON DC//G-CI/G-L/G-LMI/G-P/G-PS/G-PSE/
RHEFHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 LONDON 007695 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO IO/OIC FOR M. MORRISSEY 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: IMO AORC UK EWWT PHSA SENV KTIA ASEC
 
SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION (IMO): REPORT OF THE 
55TH SESSION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION COMMITTEE (MEPC), 
LONDON, 9 - 13 OCTOBER 2006. 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  The 55th Session of IMO's MEPC convened 9-13 October 
2006 under the chairmanship of Mr. A. Chrysostomou (Cyprus).  The 
meeting was attended by 86 members, one associate member, one 
country not a member of IMO (Cook Islands), six United Nations 
agencies, eight intergovernmental organizations, and 33 
non-governmental organizations.  All achievable U.S. objectives were 
achieved. Items of particular note were: 
 
¶A.  A discussion on the oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea which 
impacted the shorelines of Lebanon and Syria this past July.  The 
Secretary General acknowledged the countries and institutions, 
 
SIPDIS 
including the U.S., which provided assistance to the massive 
response efforts. 
 
¶B.  Adoption of an MEPC circular on the eight Unified 
Interpretations (UI) concerning implementation of MARPOL annex VI 
and the NOx technical code and related implementation issues. 
 
¶C.  Adoption of five guidelines under the ballast water management 
convention:  G1 - Guidelines for Sediment Reception Facilities, G5 - 
Guidelines for Ballast Water Reception Facilities, G11 - Guidelines 
for Ballast Water Exchange Design and Construction Standards, G12 - 
Guidelines on Design and Construction to Facilitate Sediment Control 
on Ships, and G14 - Guidelines on Designation of Areas for Ballast 
Water Exchange. 
 
¶D.  Completion of a review of technology under the Ballast Water 
Management Convention resulted in the decision to make no changes to 
the dates and discharge standard of the Convention as the technology 
is likely to be available. The committee agreed to conduct another 
review of technology at MEPC 56. 
 
¶E.  Agreement to grant basic approval to active substance proposals 
for a special pipe ballast water management system combined with 
ozone treatment, submitted by Japan, and for the ectosys 
electrochemical system, submitted by Sweden. A submission for basic 
approval to use ozone as an active substance by the republic of 
Korea was not approved. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  BALLAST WATER - A ballast water review group (BWRG) met under 
the chairmanship of the UK (Brian Elliot) to consider the 
availability of technologies for meeting the requirements of 
regulation D-2 of the Ballast Water Convention: the ballast water 
discharge standard. The BWRG considered information on 15 
technologies submitted by members to MEPC 55 as well as the 
information submitted to the previous review at MEPC 53. 
 
¶A.  Following extensive discussion, the group concluded that 
type-approved ballast water management systems will likely be 
available for installation on vessels prior to the first applicable 
date of the Convention. The group identified several issues, 
notwithstanding this conclusion, that could delay the availability 
of technologies. Several delegations expressed concern that such 
uncertainties create problems for ship owners, and the group put 
forward two potential options for alleviating those concerns 
(amending the Convention, granting exemptions). The U.S. delegation 
questioned the legality of both of these options.  The committee 
noted the recommended options, and agreed to request that the legal 
office of the organization provide an opinion on the availability of 
the options.  The committee also invited member administrations and 
non-governmental organizations to recommend that owners allow for 
technology (or its footprint) in ship designs and submit information 
to the committee regarding: 
 
(1) the availability, capability, capacity, and accreditation of 
land-based testing facilities; 
(2) the estimated number of vessels in the first category to which 
the convention applies; 
(3) the biological efficacy of systems in meeting the D-2 standard, 
and any problems related to the type approval procedures adopted by 
the organization; and 
(4) suitable emission scenario documents. 
 
¶B.  Five guidelines under the Ballast Water Management Convention 
were adopted:  G1 - Guidelines for Sediment Reception Facilities, G5 
- Guidelines for Ballast Water Reception Facilities, G11 - 
Guidelines for Ballast Water Exchange Design and Construction 
Standards, G12 - Guidelines on Design and Construction to Facilitate 
Sediment Control on Ships, and G14 - Guidelines on Designation of 
Areas for Ballast Water Exchange. G13 - Guidelines for Additional 
Measures Including Emergency Situations - was not adopted despite 
U.S. support for adoption, but was deferred to BLG 11. The work on 
G13 at BLG 11 will be narrowly focused on clarifying the procedures 
to follow when establishing additional measures. 
 
¶C.  The committee considered, but declined to adopt, the draft 
 
LONDON 00007695  002 OF 004 
 
 
methodology of work developed by the GESAMP-BWWG for use in 
reviewing proposals for approval of ballast water management systems 
making use of active substances according to the G9 guidelines. 
After significant discussion and expression of concerns by the U.S. 
and other delegations, the draft methodology was referred to the 
BWWG for further discussion and development at BLG 11 (April 2007) 
in preparation for reconsideration at MEPC 56. 
 
¶3.  SHIP RECYCLING - The committee convened a Ship Recycling Work 
Group (SRWG) which met under the chairmanship of Norway (Jens 
Koefoed). The SRWG report and recommendations to the MEPC plenary 
were adopted on October 12, 2006. 
 
¶A. The committee agreed to the following: 
(1) that the gross tonnage number delimiting ships to which the 
convention applies is 500 gross tons; 
(2) not to ask the ILO-IMO-Basel convention "joint working group" to 
deliberate on the terms of the convention, but to defer to a 
subsequent MEPC meeting whether the joint working group should 
provide additional input under their existing terms of reference 
(primarily reviewing existing guidelines); 
(3) to develop guidelines (discretionary in nature) rather than 
codes (mandatory in nature) as implementing guidance; 
(4) to have an intersessional meeting in May 2007 hosted by the UK; 
and 
(5) to continue to work by means of a correspondence group 
coordinated by Norway. 
 
¶B.  In addition, during the SRWG process, the U.S. was successful in 
raising and retaining for future discussion, a number of key issues 
including the inappropriateness of applying the convention to 
vessels only used and recycled domestically. 
 
¶C.  Japan and Germany were identified to further develop guidelines 
on hazardous materials and ship recycling facilities.  The U.S., 
Denmark, and the UK made it clear that they would be offering their 
assistance. 
 
¶D.  As expected, Basel Convention advocates - primarily Denmark, the 
UK, and the Basel Convention Secretariat itself - continued to push 
for inclusion of "equivalent levels of control" and other 
Basel-associated concepts into the convention. They were largely 
unsuccessful, but have retained the ability to continue to raise the 
issues. 
 
¶E.  Four countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China, account 
for approximately 85 to 90 percent of the world's ship recycling 
capacity.  Except for China, there was very limited participation on 
this agenda item. 
 
¶4.  AIR POLLUTION - The committee considered two main aspects under 
the agenda item on prevention of air pollution from ships:  issues 
under annex VI to MARPOL 73/78 and greenhouse gas emissions from 
ships. Under those main aspects, the Air Pollution Working Group 
(APWG) chaired by Japan (Bin Nakamura) discussed various issues 
including:  wash water discharge criteria for exhaust gas cleaning 
systems (egcs); egcs for sulphur oxides (sox), seca egcs (sox) unit 
certificate; updating the IMO greenhouse gas (GHG) study from 2000; 
the voluntary co2 index; inputting data from the trials by members 
using the co2 indexing scheme into gisis; and cooperation between 
IMO and ICAO. 
 
¶A.  The major issue of contention was the GHG study. Several 
countries, including the U.S., asked for more input into the study 
before the Terms of Reference (ToR) were finalized. The European 
countries and Japan pushed for finalization as soon as possible. The 
group discussed a preliminary draft of the ToR, but due to a lack of 
time, was not able to complete it. 
 
¶B.  Several countries presented the results of their co2 index. The 
results were noted and discussion on updating the co2 indexing 
guidelines was deferred until MEPC 58. There was discussion of how 
to include this information into the Global Integrated Shipping 
Information System (GISIS) database. The APWG created a draft of 
what information would be needed in the database, and asked that it 
be discussed at MEPC 56. Regarding cooperation between IMO and ICAO, 
the APWG only discussed increased communication as a means for 
further cooperation. 
 
¶C.  The committee recalled that it had previously approved 
guidelines for use of egcs to remove sox from ship emissions while 
operating in sox emission control areas established under MARPOL 
annex vi. The committee determined it was necessary to establish 
wash water discharge criteria for the wash water from an egcs and 
considered two proposals at this session, one from the UK, and a 
joint submission from Norway and Finland. After some discussion, the 
 
LONDON 00007695  003 OF 004 
 
 
committee agreed to establish an intersessional correspondence group 
to be coordinated by the U.S.(Wayne Lundy) to develop draft criteria 
for wash water discharge from egcs (sox) using the submissions by 
the UK, Norway and Finland as base documents, and this group will 
report to MEPC 56. 
 
¶5.  INTERPRETATIONS AND AMENDMENTS OF MARPOL 73/78 AND RELATED 
INSTRUMENTS - 
 
¶A. Oil discharge control. Six papers were submitted concerning the 
control of the discharge of oily wastes.  They were referred to the 
Design and Equipment (DE) subcommittee.  In addition, the committee 
included in the work program of the DE subcommittee and the 
provisional agenda of DE 50 a review of the revised guidelines for 
systems handling oily wastes in machinery spaces of ships 
(MEPC.1/circ.511), with a 2008 target completion date. 
 
¶B. Definition of "en route." Australia presented a proposal that the 
term "en route" as used in MARPOL annex i should be interpreted 
consistent with the definition of "en route" in regulation 1.6 of 
revised MARPOL annex ii. Australia explained that the absence of a 
definition in MARPOL annex i could lead to an interpretation that 
discharges are permitted where a ship is under way but within 
internal waters or port areas. The committee agreed to a unified 
interpretation of "en route" in revised MARPOL annex i, regulation 
15.2.1, to mirror regulation 1.6 of MARPOL annex ii, as follows: 
"'en route' means that the ship is underway at sea on a course or 
courses, including deviation from the shortest direct route, which 
as far as practicable for navigation purposes, will cause any 
discharge to be spread over as great an area of the sea as is 
reasonable and practicable." 
 
¶6. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OPRC CONVENTION AND OPRC-HNS PROTOCOL - The 
Secretariat briefed the committee on the status of the response to 
 
SIPDIS 
the oil spill in Lebanon.  The U.S. delegation updated the status 
report to indicate the recent $5m U.S. contract to work within the 
international response effort. 
 
¶A.   The committee noted that the OPRC-HNS Technical Group (TG) held 
its fifth session from 2-6 October 2006. The TG considered revisions 
to: 
(1) the proposed manual on oil spill risk evaluation and assessment 
of response preparedness, an IMO/UNEP manual on the assessment and 
restoration of environmental damage following marine oil spills; 
(2) section v of the manual on oil pollution addressing 
international conventions and salvage aspects; 
(3) section i of the same manual addressing prevention issues under 
the OPRC Convention; and 
(4) the manual on chemical pollution section which addresses legal 
and administrative aspects of HNS incidents. 
 
¶B.   The Technical Group also reviewed work toward an IMO 
introductory training course on preparedness for and response to HNS 
incidents and toward updating of the OPRC train-the-trainer course. 
The Technical Group finalized and recommended to MEPC 55 issuance of 
a circular describing briefing requirements for senior level 
executives in the event of major oil spills. 
 
¶C. The committee noted that the OPRC-HNS group, having had its 
present Chairman and Vice Chairman serve the three-year term 
stipulated in its terms of reference, unanimously elected Mr. Mark 
Meza (U.S.) as the new Chairman and Mr. Nick Guinn (NZ) as the new 
Vice Chairman for the next three-year period. 
 
¶7.  IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF SPECIAL AREAS AND PARTICULARLY 
SENSITIVE SEA AREAS - The committee discussed two issues of 
significant interest with respect to Particularly Sensitive Sea 
Areas (PSSA). First, the committee adopted the U.S. paper that set 
forth a review form to ensure the robust review of future PSSA 
proposals. 
 
¶A. Second, with regard to the Torres Strait, the committee 
considered Australia's enactment of a compulsory pilotage scheme for 
the Torres Strait and reiterated the recommendatory nature of MEPC 
resolution MEPC.133(53). This was in response to a paper submitted 
by the industry (ICS, INTERTANKO, BIMCO) which challenged 
Australia's claim that MEPC.133(53) provided a basis for the 
compulsory scheme. The chairman reiterated that the resolution was 
recommendatory vice mandatory. Singapore then intervened to urge 
Australia to bring their legislation in line with MEPC.133(53).  In 
addition to the U.S., the following delegations supported Singapore: 
 the Russian Federation, China, Japan, Norway, Greece, UK, Brazil, 
Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Nigeria, Bahamas, Chile, Republic of 
Korea, Liberia, Latvia, Cyprus, Italy, Iran, Marshall Islands, 
India, Thailand, INTERTANKO, and IMPA.  Australia was supported by 
Denmark, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.  The UK called for 
 
LONDON 00007695  004 OF 004 
 
 
development of IMO guidelines to rigorously examine when states may 
seek to make pilotage compulsory in international straits.  The 
committee agreed with the chairman's recommendation and the record 
reflected that the adoption of resolution MEPC.133(53) was on a 
recommendatory basis. 
 
¶8.  INADEQUACY OF RECEPTION FACILITIES - The committee discussed 
regional arrangements for reception facilities in considering an 
action item following FSI 14 to develop a MEPC resolution to 
recognize regional arrangements for providing adequate reception 
facilities. The committee recalled that MEPC 44 adopted guidelines 
for ensuring the adequacy of port reception facilities in 2000 which 
included that waste management planning on a regional basis can 
provide a solution. Recognizing that the guidelines already address 
regional arrangements and that the relevant MARPOL regulations 
require each party to provide reception facilities, the committee 
agreed that it was not appropriate to adopt a further resolution 
recognizing regional arrangements as satisfying MARPOL obligations, 
but agreed to request views at future sessions on how such 
arrangements may be better institutionalized. 
 
¶9.  WORK OF OTHER BODIES - 
 
¶A.   The committee considered future funding mechanisms for GESAMP 
and came to no conclusions.  The U.S. delegation recommended that 
the committee and the parties consider contracting competitively for 
work on approved standards now being applied by GESAMP. 
 
¶B.   The committee accepted the report of the joint London 
Convention-MEPC Correspondence Group. In particular, the committee 
concurred with the view of the group that the approach to manage 
spoiled cargo in most cases would fall under the London Convention 
protocol. The committee also agreed to creating a working group to 
be undertaken under the London Convention, aimed at developing 
practical guidance for mariners regarding spoiled cargoes. 
 
¶10.  PROMOTION OF IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF MARPOL 73/78 AND 
RELATED INSTRUMENTS - The international criminal police organization 
(INTERPOL) presented information on its work to combat environmental 
crime, including illegal oil discharges from ships, and requested 
member states to provide to INTERPOL information on oil 
pollution-related prosecutions. The committee supported the request 
without discussion. 
 
¶11.  ELECTION OF THE CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN FOR 2007 - In 
accordance with rule 17 of the rules and procedure, the committee 
unanimously re-elected Mr. Andreas Chrysostomou (Cyprus) as 
Chairman, and re-elected Mr. Ajoy Chatterjee (India) as Vice 
Chairman, both for 2007. 
 
¶12.  NEXT SESSION - MEPC 56 will be held 9-13 July 2007. Major 
agenda items will include ballast water management, ship recycling, 
and air pollution from ships.