Linking Local Discharge Regs to Global Scrubber Rules is Fake News: Adams

Ian Adams. Image Credit: CSA2020 / Ian Adams

Ian Adams, Executive Director of scrubber advocate group The Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 (CSA 2020) has called on the global maritime industry not to single out scrubber wash water discharge when putting local rules in place to address the impact of ship operations.

The comments come after Singapore, China, and earlier this week, Fujairah said they were implementing rules specifically prohibiting the operation of open-loop scrubbers within their waters.

Most ports and harbours already have discharge requirements which have been in place for years, CSA2020 notes, such as Belgium where rules date back to 1971.

"Ports have the right to mandate their own requirements and it is commonplace for local administrations to continually assess their ship discharge requirements. But to link these decisions to sensationalist statements in the scrubber debate, without any reference to scientific data, is unfounded, unreasonable and impacts port clients while perpetuating the spread of factually incorrect information," Adams said in a statement released today.

"To start speculating that this will have an impact on global rules or, indeed, the wider take up of open- and closed-loop scrubbers is wrong. It's peddling fake news."

CSA 2020 says it has visited several individual ports and other authorities to present scientific data relating to the composition of wash waters, and will continue to do so in the weeks ahead.

"It is understandable the discharge of scrubber wash waters will figure in some local discharge discussions and these rules may currently differ from one place to the next. However, we strongly encourage any port considering a restriction to first investigate the existing data before creating such an impact on their shipping clients," said Michael Kaczmarek, Senior Vice-President, at CSA2020 member Carnival Corporation.
 
"While I do not know of any scientific evidence concluding that scrubber wash water discharged to sea is harmful, what I do know is that the International Maritime Organisation considered this issue in depth before confirming the acceptability of exhaust gas cleaning systems, open and closed, as means of compliance."