At the UK Chamber of Shipping and Fathom Maritime Intelligence’s joint Ballast Water Forum held in London yesterday, Meridena Kauffman, United States Coast Guard (USCG) tackled the reason for dismissing the Most Probable Number (MPN) method for testing ballast water.
The question to Kauffman, raised by Jonathan Spremulli, representing the International Chamber of Shipping, highlighted the Most Probable Number (MPN) method of testing and how it was declined by the USCG as an appropriate method for evaluating the biological efficacy of UV-based systems,
Despite the USCG making the decision in December 2015 that this method is not a valid approach, it is still currently used for water testing around the world.
However, Kauffman stated that for the USCG, the approaches for drinking water and ballast water cannot be compared due to the lack of source classification of the ballast water. Therefore, the methods of testing for ballast water must be far more rigorous than those for source identifiable drinking water.
Alternatively, the USCG recognises a method known as FDA/CMFDA which uses a dye to identify living organisms and according to the USCG, this has proven to be the most reliable to date.
Ship Efficiency Review News
To contact the editor responsible for this article email editor@fathom-mi.com
