Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73not60

§3824 Process for Considering Additional Controls

Title 33 › Chapter 51— CLEAN HULLS › Subchapter II— IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION › § 3824

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Allows the Administrator to join the Convention’s Article 7 technical group and other meetings to consider new or tighter rules for antifouling systems. The Administrator can check risks to other species and people, study environmental, technical, and economic factors (including benefits in the U.S. and elsewhere), and make recommendations. When an antifouling system is sent to the Article 7 group, the Secretary of State must hold a public meeting of the Shipping Coordinating Committee and announce it in the Federal Register and on the State Department website. The Administrator must keep a public file with notices, comments, meeting minutes, materials, and any technical group report, and must give the public at least 30 days to comment after the report is announced. The Administrator should consider those comments when making recommendations.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §3824

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Administrator may—

(1)participate in the technical group described in Article 7 of the Convention, and in any other body convened pursuant to the Convention for the consideration of new or additional controls on antifouling systems;

(2)evaluate any risks of adverse effects on nontarget organisms or human health presented by a given antifouling system such that the amendment of annex 1 of the Convention may be warranted;

(3)undertake an assessment of relevant environmental, technical, and economic considerations necessary to evaluate any proposals for new or additional controls of antifouling systems under the Convention, including benefits in the United States and elsewhere associated with the production and use in the United States and elsewhere, of the subject antifouling system; and

(4)develop recommendations based on that assessment.

(b)(1)On referral of any antifouling system to the technical group described in article 7 of the Convention for consideration of new or additional controls, the Secretary of State shall convene a public meeting of the Shipping Coordinating Committee for the purpose of receiving information and comments regarding controls on such antifouling system. The Secretary of State shall publish advance notice of such meeting in the Federal Register and on the State Department’s Web site. The Administrator shall assemble and maintain a public docket containing notices pertaining to that meeting, any comments responding to those notices, the minutes of that meeting, and materials presented at that meeting.

(2)The Administrator shall promptly make any report by the technical group described in the Convention available to the public through the docket established pursuant to subsection (b) and announce the availability of that report in the Federal Register. The Administrator shall provide an opportunity for public comment on the report for a period of not less than 30 days from the time the availability of the report is announced in the Federal Register.

(3)To the extent practicable, the Administrator shall take any comments into consideration in developing recommendations under subsection (a).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 3824

Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60