WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate passed a provision supported by U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) that averts an impending onerous permitting requirement for Maine fishermen, recreational boaters, and on-water researchers to operate their vessels. The provision was included in legislation to reauthorize the U.S. Coast Guard that passed the Senate today and is expected to pass the House later this week. Specifically, the provision secured for an additional three years the continued exemption for small vessel owners from needing to apply for permits for the incidental discharge of water off their boats.

“This provision is all about commonsense government. Maine’s fishermen have enough to worry about without having to go to the EPA to get a permit just to do things like wash down their boats at the end of the day,” Senator King said. “That’s why I’m pleased the Senate recognized the shortsightedness of these regulations and moved to stave them off for another few years. I will continue to fight alongside my colleagues in the next Congress to see that we permanently fix this issue and give our fishermen and recreational boaters a better sense of certainty.”

In 1973, when the EPA first implemented the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) pursuant to section 402 of the Clean Water Act, the Agency categorically exempted vessels from the prohibitions and permitting requirements of NPDES.

This exemption remained in place until 2005, when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court ruling that the EPA's 32-year-old regulatory exemption was beyond the Agency's scope of authority under the Clean Water Act. The ruling took away the EPA’s ability to exempt small vessel owners from needing to acquire permits to dispense of water incidental to their normal operation back into the ocean.

The requirement to get an EPA permit was to take effect on December 19^th, 2014, but the provision passed today would reinstate that exemption, fixing an issue which has concerned small vessel operators and the EPA since the 2005 circuit court ruling.

Consequently, incidental discharges by vessels less than 79 feet in length engaged in commercial service, fishing vessels, and recreational vessels, as well as discharges that occur for research, safety, or similar purposes will not be subject to the permitting requirements of NPDES.

The provision is in line with legislation – the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act of 2013 – cosponsored by Senator King that would a establish uniform national standard governing ballast water discharges and permanently fix the incidental discharge permitting issue

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