Tampered Oily Water Separator Found at Port State Control

This is a serious matter, and it is not a paperwork problem.

• Equipment. Holding the three-way valve in the overboard position with a jubilee clip and disconnecting the alarm's sample line defeats the pollution prevention equipment. That is not a maintenance defect; it is tampering, and it is the kind of finding that leads to detention in most port states.
• Records. In several jurisdictions (the United States, under its legislation implementing MARPOL, for example) deliberately false oil record book entries are a criminal offence for the company and for the individuals who signed them, with imprisonment available as a penalty. The chief engineer countersigned, so the exposure is personal as well as corporate.
• The 13 nm entries show a further misunderstanding. Distance from land is not the criterion for machinery-space bilge water under MARPOL Annex I; the 12-mile rule applies to cargo-area discharges from oil tankers. Recording an irrelevant position while the equipment was inoperative makes the falsification worse, not better.
• Notifications. Flag state and classification society notification, an SMS investigation, and a report to the company DPA.

Before sailing: the valve restored and the sample line reconnected; the 15 ppm alarm tested and proved to operate the automatic stopping device; the separator proved to produce below 15 ppm on a test sample; the oil record book corrected by a signed and dated note of the incorrect entries (pages are never removed or overwritten); an internal audit of the previous 12 months of entries against GPS tracks and tank soundings; a shore technician or surveyor to verify the repair; and a written instruction that no overboard discharge takes place until the equipment is proven.

Stop, contain, verify, record, and arrange disposal.

1. Stop all discharges now. Line the separator up to the bilge holding tank, shut the overboard valve, and secure it shut with a warning notice. Nothing goes overboard until the system is proved.
2. Verify the system. Test the 15 ppm monitor with its calibration cell, check the automatic stopping device and the alarm circuit, inspect the separator's coalescer plates and the filter, and record every result with the instrument readings.
3. Measure the waste inventory. Bilge holding tank, sludge tank at 88%, and any cargo residues. With five days to a port that has no reception booked, capacity is tight: book a reception through the agent now and obtain written confirmation, or identify an alternative port, or use the approved incinerator for the sludge if it is fit for that use.
4. Cross-check the oil record book against the GPS track, the deck and engine logs, and tank soundings, and prepare a factual statement of discrepancies for the company and the flag. Do not destroy or alter documents - the originals are evidence and the inspector may take copies.
5. Raise an SMS non-conformity, hold a safety meeting with the engine room ratings, and post the correct procedure in the engine room. Recommend to the company that the second engineer be stood down from pollution prevention duties pending the investigation.
6. Report to the master, who decides on notifying the flag state and the next port, and remind him of his overriding authority and his duty to report.

Conditions that must all be satisfied at the same time (Annex I, Chapter 3, Regulation 15):

• The ship is proceeding en route.
• The ship is outside an Annex I special area, where this discharge is prohibited.
• The oily mixture has been processed through the approved oily water separating equipment.
• The oil content of the effluent, without dilution, does not exceed 15 ppm.
• The ship is fitted with an approved 15 ppm bilge alarm and an automatic stopping device that operates when the effluent exceeds 15 ppm.
• The operation is recorded in oil record book Part I with date, position, quantity and the signature of the officer in charge, countersigned by the master.
• The water originates from machinery-space bilges, is not cargo tank washing, and has not been mixed with sludge or oily residues - those must go to a reception facility or be incinerated.

Breached here: the alarm's sample line was disconnected, so the effluent was not demonstrably processed through functioning approved equipment and the 15 ppm limit could not be shown to be met; the automatic stopping device could not have operated; and the oil record book entries were false, which breaches the record-keeping duty independently of the discharge. The ship's position 9 nm from land was not in itself a breach for machinery-space bilge water, but that does not help: the discharge was unlawful because the equipment had been defeated, and the false entries make it a deliberate violation rather than an error.