NAVAL WASTE

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>

NAVAL WASTE HEARINGS

The following is excerpted from the Federal Register:

[Federal Register: May 1, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 85)]
[Page 19264-19265]

SUMMARY: The Department of the Navy (DON) announces the availability of
two documents pertaining to the management of solid waste aboard Navy
ships. The first is a Draft Plan for Compliance with Regulation 5 of
Annex V to the MARPOL Convention by vessels owned or operated by the
Department of the Navy. The second document is a Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS) for Disposal of U.S. Navy Shipboard Solid
Waste. Copies of these documents can be obtained by contacting Mr.
Robert Ostermueller, Planner in Charge, Northern Division, Naval
Facilities Engineering Command, 10 Industrial Highway, Mail Stop #82,
Lester, Pennsylvania 19113-2090, telephone (610) 595-0759, fax (610)
595-0778.

Federal, state and local agencies, and interested individuals, are
encouraged to submit comments regarding the draft Plan and/or the DEIS.
Written comments may be submitted to Mr. Ostermueller at the above
address. The Navy will also hold two public meetings to receive oral or
written comments on either or both documents. 

The first meeting will be
held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday May 28, 1996, at the Holiday Inn, 625 First
Street, Alexandria, Virginia, 22314. 

The second meeting will be held at
7:30 PM on Thursday, May 30, 1996, at the Clift Hotel, 495 Geary
Street, San Francisco, CA, 94120. 

In the interest of available time,
each speaker will be asked to limit oral comments to five minutes.
Longer comments should be summarized at the public meeting or mailed to
the address indicated above.

DATES: Written comments on the Plan and/or the DEIS will be considered
if received by Mr. Ostermueller at the above address not later than
June 17, 1996. Oral or written comments will also be considered if
presented at one of the public meetings discussed above, to be held on
May 28 and 30, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
CDR Lane Willson, U.S. Navy, Shipboard Solid Waste Project Manager,
Chief of Naval Operations (N45) 2211 S. Clark Place, Arlington, VA
22244-5108, (703) 602-8794.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Special Area Compliance Plan is being
prepared pursuant to Section 1003(c)(2) of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994, Public Law 103-160, codified at
33 U.S.C. 1902(2)-(4). That statute requires the Secretary of the Navy
to submit, by 30 November 1996, a plan for compliance by all ships
owned or operated by the DON with the requirements of Regulation 5 of
Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution
from Ships (MARPOL). Regulation 5 of Annex V establishes rules
pertaining to discharge of shipboard solid waste from vessels operating
in designated ``special areas'' of the world, of which three are
currently in effect: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Antarctic
Region. Essentially Regulation 5 of Annex V prohibits all discharges of
solid waste, other than food waste, from ships in ``in-effect'' special
areas.

The draft Plan concludes that it is not technologically feasible,
within the foreseeable future, for certain Navy vessels to comply fully
with the special area discharge limitations of Regulation 5 of Annex V,
while at the same time maintaining the required level of operational
capability. Full compliance would require all naval vessels operating
in ``in-effect'' special areas to adopt either the onboard destruction
or the storage and retrograde approach to shipboard solid waste
management. The draft Plan demonstrates that, given the current state
of demonstrated shipboard solid waste management technology, adoption
of either approach would materially interfere with the operations
and operational capability of certain U.S. Navy warships operating in
``in-effect'' special areas.

The draft Plan identifies as the Navy's preferred alternative a
combination of waste management approaches for the Fleet, depending
upon the design, construction, manning and operating profiles of the
various ship types. Navy vessels smaller than frigates, such as fleet
ocean tugs, rescue and salvage vessels, mine countermeasure ships and
coastal patrol craft, have relatively small crews and typically remain
at sea in ``in-effect'' special areas for only a few days at a time.
Given these circumstances it is feasible for these vessels, employing
compaction technology, to retain solid waste on board for shore
disposal. For these vessels, therefore, the Navy's preferred
alternative for special area compliance is storage and retrograde of
solid waste.

The draft plan indicates that ocean going surface vessels of
frigate size and larger are technologically unable to comply with the
special area discharge limitations of Regulation 5 of Annex V while
maintaining required levels of operational capability. U.S. Navy
frigates are vessels approximately 450 feet in length and with a
displacement of roughly 4,100 tons. The Navy's preferred special area
compliance alternative for these vessels is a combination of management
practices. Plastic and hazardous waste would be stored aboard for
recycling or disposal ashore. The remaining solid waste streams,
consisting of paper, cardboard metal and glass, would be processed
using shipboard equipment and discharged overboard. Paper, cardboard
and food waste would be processed in a pulper, creating a slurry of
those wastes in seawater, which would be discharged overboard. Metal
and glass would be processed in a shredder, which would tear or break
metal cans and glass containers into small pieces. The processed waste
would then be bagged in burlap and discharged overboard.

The Compliance Plan does not address submarines; further research
and development is needed to resolve the particular solid waste
challenges unique to submarines. In the meantime, submarines will
continue to minimize waste generated at sea through intensive source
reduction efforts at the pier.

Although it would be consistent with the MARPOL Convention, which
requires reasonable and practicable compliance efforts of warships, the
Navy's preferred alternative for frigate size and larger vessels would
not be consistent with a future requirement of the Act to Prevent
Pollution from Ships (APPS), 33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq. Section 1902(c)(1)
of APPS requires Navy surface vessels to comply with MARPOL special
area requirements by 31 December 2000. To avoid inconsistency with U.S.
law after the year 2000, and in accordance with Section 1902(c) (3) and
(4), the Navy is recommending a legislative amendment to APPS that will
allow discharge after the date of non-plastic, non-floating pulped and
shredded material in special areas of certain naval vessels. This
authorization would extend only to those vessels that the Secretary of
the Navy determines are prevented by their uniquely military design,
construction, manning or operating requirements from being capable of
meeting the Regulation 5 of Annex V discharge standards. The proposed
legislation would prohibit the discharge of pulped material within 3
nautical miles of the nearest land, and would prohibit the discharge of
shredded material within 12 nautical miles of the nearest land.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) addresses
the environmental consequences of each of the
alternative means of shipboard solid waste management, and identifies
the same preferred alternative as does the Compliance Plan. The DEIS
has been provided to Congress in conjunction with the Navy's APPS
legislative proposal, discussed above. Hence, the DEIS serves also as a
Legislative Environmental Impact Statement (LEIS) to assist in
Congressional consideration of the legislative proposal. If enacted,
the amendment to APPS would authorize, but not require, the Navy to
implement its currently identified preferred alternative as the Navy's
final plan for special area compliance.