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What do you expect him to say! Washwater discharge from scrubbers is SAFE says CEO of Scrubber Manufacturer

c: AIDA Cruises

In recent months, lobbyists have managed to convince some international ports to ban open loop scrubbers because of fears that the washwater discharge from marine scrubbers are harmful to the environment, but without presenting convincing, valid scientific evidence to back up the ban.

In January this year, Ian Adams of the Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 even labelled such allegations as “fake news”.

As a company that represent technologies scientifically developed and documented, we hope that the international community and shipping industry going forward will base scientific discussions on science instead of undocumented scaremongering. The latter could prove highly detrimental to both people’s health and our planet.

Harmless washwater
Historically, human activity, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, has released large amounts of fossilized sulphur causing acid rain over land, lakes and rivers. Acid rain has, however, notcaused any problems to the marine environment. Seawater is naturally alkaline, which gives the seawater a substantial capacity to absorb and neutralize SO2.

This is one of the reasons why numerous independent scientific studies in recent years have all concluded that washwater from scrubbers do not harm the marine environment, including:

• Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s study published in 2019 concluded that “the discharge water with chemical substances such as SOx, PAHs and heavy metals can NOT cause unacceptable effects either on the marine organisms or on the seawater quality around Japan”.
• A three-year study led by cruise giant Carnival, and subsequently evaluated by classification society DNV GL, confirmed in 2019 that washwater samples were consistently well within the allowable IMO criteria and regulatory limits.
• In 2019, a study by CE Delft, a research organisation in the Netherlands specialising in environmental issues, indicating that accumulated concentrations of scrubbers’ wash water components are at very low levels and well below applicable regulatory limits.
• An Assessment of possible impacts of scrubber water discharges on the marine environment conducted by the Danish Ministry of the Environment, concluded in 2012 that “…compared to current environmental acceptability levels the releases from scrubbers can be expected to be considerably below the levels of ecological concern”.
• As far back as 1989 and 1990, the University of Bergen in Norway conducted a benthic survey before and after the deployment of a seawater scrubber at Norway‘s Mongstad refinery, reference is made to ”A benthic survey before and after the deployment of a seawater scrubber outlet”, Botnen et.al. The survey concluded that “No evidence of harmful impact on the marine bottom fauna at the seawater scrubber outlet was found”.

Upon being presented with the results and conclusions from the recent scientific studies, several ports have confirmed that they will revoke the ban on open loop scrubbers.

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