Ballast Water Management Plan

[Natalia.Kleopa]

In a new-building vessel, can it be added to the Ballast Water Management Plan as a contingency measure the need to perform ballasting without the BWTS when the water quality falls outside of the system design limitations of the system?

[Paraschos.Liadis]

@Natalia.Kleopa for the time being, the only the official guidance on contingency measures related to ballast water treatment operations is the IMO Circular BWM.2 / Circ.62 (July 2017).
There is no regulatory framework allowing Class Societies to approve the official bypassing of the BWTS in the Ballast Water Management Plan, yet.
However, the ballast water quality issue is to be discussed further during the MEPC79 in December 2022.
You may also refer to the below Queseas thread.

Ballast water treatment operation in muddy waters

It is quite common to encounter problems during the operation of Ballast Water Treatment Systems (BWTS) in muddy waters, especially in Chinese ports. In many cases, especially for BWTS with filters it is safer for the system to bypass it in order not to cause serious damages on the filters and render the entire BTWS out of order. What is the regulatory aspect of this matter? Are operators allowed to do this?