Pacific Environment calls on US EPA to ban scrubber discharge

Environmental organization Pacific Environment has released a policy paper calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the discharge of ships’ exhaust gas control systems (ECGS), otherwise known as scrubbers, in the U.S. waters.

According to Pacific Environment, there is a huge body of scientific work and studies that show that scrubbers are detrimental to the marine environment, wildlife and people’s health. 

The organization has compiled 26 recent studies showing the breadth and depth of new and substantial data, making the case for why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must ban scrubber discharge.

Recent scientific studies show that scrubber discharge is extremely toxic to marine life at very low concentrations, and scrubber discharge may have a serious impact on the populations of key species of marine food webs.

Pacific Environment emphasized that the Biden administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should respond to these increasing environmental threats and lessen health risks by banning scrubber discharges in U.S. waters, as they finalize pending regulations under the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA).

VIDA requires the EPA to develop national standards of performance for incidental discharges. The EPA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in October 2020, but the rule has not yet been finalized.

In September 2023, Pacific Environment and Ocean Conservancy, in partnership with its allies, submitted a letter with 45 signatories to the Biden administration that includes seven specific recommendations, including a call to phase out and ban the use of sulfur scrubbers on ships in U.S. waters.

They urged the Biden administration to issue an executive order with specific time-bound actions that will unlock opportunities and innovation for decarbonizing the maritime sector, including banning scrubber discharge. The announcement came in the wake of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) and the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) MEPC 80 session. In June 2024, eight additional groups signed onto the letter.

The partners noted that the administration has a critical opportunity to advance technological innovation in the maritime sector while also improving public health and reducing harmful climate pollution.

“Substantial data has been published since EPA’s 2020 initial consideration to regulate scrubbers. This new information documenting the harms to our marine environment and wildlife compels action now. More than 90 jurisdictions across the globe have enacted scrubber discharge bans and restrictions — and the United States should follow their lead. We call on the EPA and President Biden to end the use of scrubbers now,” Kay Brown, Arctic Policy Director, Pacific Environment, said.

Brown stated that in a summary of restrictions on discharges from scrubbers, dated August 11, 2020, U.S. EPA concluded that “insufficient data exist at this time to warrant prohibiting these discharges under the Clean Water Act. However, the technical committees at the IMO are currently revisiting the need to perform additional assessments of environmental impacts from EGCS discharges, and EPA will “continue to monitor the availability of research findings compiled in connection with these discussions.”

Meanwhile, in April this year, the Danish government banned the discharge of scrubber water from ships into the marine environment within 22 kilometers of the Danish coasts. The move was followed by the Swedish government which decided to go ahead with introducing a scrubber ban within the country’s waters.

Scrubbers became widespread after stricter sulfur regulations were introduced in the North Sea and Baltic Sea in 2015 and especially after global sulfur regulations introduced by the International Maritime Organizaton (IMO) came into effect in 2020.

At that time, shipping companies could choose to comply with the new rules by either cleaning the smoke for sulfur with a scrubber or switching to fuel with a lower sulfur content. In recent years, the number of ships using this technology has grown.