PVA reminds members whose vessels are subject to coverage under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Vessel General Permit (VGP), to file the required annual report no later than February 28, 2026, covering activities conducted from Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2025.
The EPA requires that the report be filed electronically through its online system. File your annual report well in advance of the deadline as filers waiting until the last minute have sometimes encountered difficulties with the online system.
How To Submit Annual Reports
First, register in the EPA’s free, online system to submit electronic reports at the EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX).
If you registered for the 2008 VGP, you must update your registration to submit 2013 VGP reports.
Once registered, submit annual reports at EPA’s 2013 VGP eNOI System using your CDX username and password to login. You may submit multiple reports at a time using a batch upload function.
Who Needs To Apply
The VGP applies to any commercial vessel of 79 feet or greater in length, or a vessel of any size that discharges ballast water. It authorizes the vessel discharge of numerous types of wastewaters (other than sewage) and sets out expected best management practices.
Small vessels of less than 79 feet that do not discharge ballast water are permanently exempt from the VGP requirements. Responding to PVA’s advocacy efforts, Congress codified this permanent exemption in December 2018.
For most PVA members that operate covered vessels with no ballast water discharges, the annual report itself will be relatively simple to complete. A few operators of newly built vessels of 400 gross tons or more, (medium cruise ships and large cruise ships) may have to fill out the additional graywater and bilgewater monitoring requirements.
A copy of the full 2013 VGP can be found here; see pages 181-189 for a sample of the annual report. The 2013 VGP is the current and most recent version of the regulation for compliance.
Questions
If you have questions for the EPA regarding the VGP electronic reporting system, email VGPeNOI@epa.gov.