Mark Beavis, managing director at wastewater management provider ACO Marine, is adamant IMO needs to step up to enforce greater enforcement of current anti-pollution legislation.
“Of course there are shipyards and shipowners who will follow only the rules and no further and this is perfectly understandable given the difficult financial times in which we live,” Beavis tells Maritime CEO. It therefore falls to the IMO and other environmental legislative bodies, he suggests, to ensure that the rules in place are not only adequate to ensure protection of the marine environment but also that all testing of equipment is fully monitored and policed by the approval authorities and enforcement agencies.
“There are still the old-fashioned ‘dilute, dose and dump’ units that, whilst clearly not operating to the standard, are still able somehow to get IMO Type Approval, even to the latest Special Area treatment requirements for Nitrogen and Phosphorous removal,” Beavis warns.
Beavis is calling for a full review of treatment technologies by IMO and the approval bodies to ensure real and actual compliance with the test procedure is achieved, rather than simply taking laboratory test results at face value.
At the SMM exhibition in Hamburg last week ACO Marine launched its new ACO PowerVAC vacuum generation system and wastewater transfer stations.
“This means that with full in-house development and supply we have an even stronger grip on quality control and optimum component selection for our complete wastewater system scope of supply,” Beavis explaims. By the end of this year his company will complete development and launch the last piece of the wastewater management system, namely the vacuum integration components such as vacuum toilets, urinals, bidets and interface valves.
“This coupled with a full range of sanitary ware,” Beavis claims, “will mean that we will be unique in the market place being the only supplier able to offer and provide, from entirely in–house designed, developed, manufactured and sourced components, the complete system from bathroom to overboard discharge including collection, treatment, holding and discharge components as well as the push-fit pipe system that connects them all together.”
