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The Shipping Legislation (Control of Smoke Emission) (Amendment) Bill 2014, which aims to provide an objective benchmark for determining the extent of dark smoke emission from vessels that constitutes an offence and proposes penalty amendments, will be gazetted on February 28, the Transport and Housing Bureau spokesman said today (February 26).
At present, the Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance (Cap. 548), which regulates local vessels, and the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance (Cap. 313), which regulates non-local vessels (including ocean-going vessels and cross-boundary passenger ferries, etc) require that a vessel in the waters of Hong Kong must not emit smoke in such a quantity as to be a nuisance. The law, however, does not define the extent of emission which constitutes a "nuisance".
To facilitate enforcement, the Marine Department (MD) has been making reference to the Ringelmann Chart (see Annex) in assessing the level of dark smoke emission from vessels. Since 2005, the MD has adopted the same reference for issuing certificates of survey to vessel owners.
The MD has researched into overseas practice and noted that some ports in the United Kingdom and the United States have adopted a similar reference standard to the Ringelmann Chart as the benchmark for taking prosecution actions against excessive smoke emission from vessels.
The spokesman said that, in the light of experience gained locally since 2005 and in line with overseas practice, it is proposed that the Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance and the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance be amended to refer expressly to the Ringelmann Chart to the effect that vessels regulated under the respective Ordinances are not allowed to emit dark smoke which is as dark as or darker than Shade 2 on the Ringelmann Chart for three minutes or more continuously at any one time.
At the same time, to reflect the greater severity of the pollution problem caused by ocean-going vessels and to maintain proportionality in penalty levels for better deterrence, the Bill also proposes that the maximum fines for non-local vessels be increased from the current $10,000 to $25,000 for a first offence, and from the current $20,000 to $50,000 for any subsequent offence. The maximum fines for local vessels will remain unchanged, which is $10,000 for a first offence and $25,000 for any subsequent offence.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on March 19.
Ends/Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:30
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