33 U.S.C. § 1953: Coast Guard program

Summary

Require the Coast Guard Commandant, with the Interagency Committee, to cut down illegal dumping of plastics and other ship garbage and to make the MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships work better. The Commandant must step up monitoring and enforcement, work with federal and state agencies, help ports keep and check trash receptacles, and promote voluntary government‑industry partnerships. The Commandant must also make a plan with commercial and recreational boaters to improve on‑board waste handling, recordkeeping, and access to shore disposal facilities. They must boost international cooperation and set up a voluntary reporting program for vessel damage, navigation problems, and observed disposal violations.

Title 33, §1953

Navigation and Navigable Waters, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultation with the Interagency Committee, shall—

(1)take actions to reduce violations of and improve implementation of MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) with respect to the discard of plastics and other garbage from vessels;

(2)take actions to cost-effectively monitor and enforce compliance with MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), including through cooperation and coordination with other Federal and State enforcement programs;

(3)take actions to improve compliance with requirements under MARPOL Annex V and section 6 of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1905) that all United States ports and terminals maintain and monitor the adequacy of receptacles for the disposal of plastics and other garbage, including through promoting voluntary government-industry partnerships;

(4)develop and implement a plan, in coordination with industry and recreational boaters, to improve ship-board waste management, including recordkeeping, and access to waste reception facilities for ship-board waste;

(5)take actions to improve international cooperation to reduce marine debris; and

(6)establish a voluntary reporting program for commercial vessel operators and recreational boaters to report incidents of damage to vessels and disruption of navigation caused by marine debris, and observed violations of laws and regulations relating to the disposal of plastics and other marine debris.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, referred to in pars. (1) and (2), is Pub. L. 96–478, Oct. 21, 1980, 94 Stat. 2297, which is classified principally to chapter 33 (§ 1901 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 1901 of this title and Tables.

Amendments

2025—Pub. L. 119–65, § 6(a), which directed amendment of this section by substituting “Under Secretary” for “Administrator”, could not be executed because the word “Administrator” did not appear. 2012—Pub. L. 112–213 struck out subsec. (a) designation and heading “Strategy” and struck out subsecs. (b) and (c) which required reports on the Coast Guard’s progress in implementing former subsec. (a) and on the effectiveness of international and national measures to prevent and reduce marine debris and its impact.

§1953 Coast Guard Program