Toward protection of the marine environment: Uniform national discharge standards for military vessels

On February 10, 1996, President Clinton signed into law a new mechanism for controlling discharges from military vessels. Section 325 of the 1996 Defense Authorization Act requires that Uniform National Discharge Standards(UNDS) be developed for vessels of the armed forces. The three primarily responsible agencies (Navy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Coast Guard) recently have undertaken a process to implement the new statute. Since the implementation process will determine the manner in which control of discharges from all U.S. military vessels will change over the next few years, it is a key activity in terms of protecting the quality of our marine environment. Information on the implementation process may assist state representatives, stakeholders and others in achieving more effective participation in it. The process also will guide major new environmental investments necessary to meet the evolving requirements and thus may be of interest to a variety of environmental contractors.