Commissioning sampling for ballast water treatment systems

If commissioning sampling is required by a vessel’s flag state, it is the shipowner who is responsible for contacting and making arrangements with an appropriate testing body. As the sampling is not a direct part of the commissioning work, managing it does not fall within the standard commissioning scope of the system supplier.

Likewise, the supplier’s commissioning scope does not include the fault-finding, corrective actions and new
sampling required if the first samples fail to indicate compliance with the IMO D-2 discharge standard. There may be many possible reasons for a negative result, including failure to clean the ballast water tanks and piping appropriately prior to installation.