California Clean Coast Act Now in Force

All owners/operators of ships trading in the marine waters of the state of California should note that the California Clean Coast Act, as described in Lloyd’s Classification News No. 15/2005, came into force on January 1, 2006. The Act has the effect of extending California’s existing programme regulating onboard incineration and the release of grey water, sewage, sewage sludge, oily bilge water, hazardous and other waste to cover all ocean-going ships.

Ocean-going ships are defined in the Act as private, commercial, government or military vessels of 300 grt or more. All such ships calling at Californian ports or places during 2006 must submit information on their waste water management capabilities, port of call information and crew requirements upon departure from their first port of call in California this year. The information needs to be submitted only once using the form developed by the California State Lands Commission (CSLC).

A copy of this form can be found on Lloyd’s ClassDirect website (Classification News section), along with an explanatory letter from the CSLC and a summary of the Act’s provisions. In addition, further to powers granted to it by the Marine Invasive Species Act 2003 to evaluate the risk of invasions from other sources, such as hull fouling, the CSLC is currently sponsoring research on fouling of commercial vessels that visit the state.