MEMBER ALERT Shipowners Claims Bureau, Inc., Manager One Battery Park Plaza 31 st Fl., New York, NY 10004 USA Tel: +1 212 847 4500 Fax: +1 212 847 4599 https://www.american-club.com American Club Member Alert – August 14, 201 9 1 AUGUST 14, 2019 BILGE ALARM AND OIL CONTENT METER The US Coast Guard (USCG) has issued a Lessons Learned alert 01-19, Avoid delays and keep your ship schedule! Does your BilgMon 488 Bilge Alarm/Oil Content Meter operate properly?, (attached here) by a recent port State control inspection. T he alert notes that the Marine Safety Detachment (MSD) Port Canaveral Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) identified MARPOL deficiencies related to the 15-ppm Bilge Alarm system of the Oily Water Separators (OWS) onboard four separate ships. They discovered that the entries in the Oil Record Book (ORB) did not correspond to the Bilge Alarm Data being displayed by the bilge alarm / oil content meter. The 15-ppm Bilge Alarm is required to record date, time, alarm status and the operating status of the 15ppm bilge separator. As required by IMO Resolution MEPC.107(49), Revised Guidelines and Specifications for Pollution Prevention Equipment for Machinery Spaces for Ships, the recording device shall also store this data for at least eighteen months and be able to display or print a protocol for official system inspections. Y our Managers recommend that Members take note of this information and be guided accordingly. Page | 1 July 31, 2019 Lessons Learned 01-19 Washington, DC Avoid delays and keep your ship on schedule! Does your BilgMon 488 Bilge Alarm / Oil Content Meter operate properly? Recently, Marine Safety Detachment (MSD) Port Canaveral Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) identified MARPOL deficiencies related to the 15-ppm Bilge Alarm system of the Oily Water Separators (OWS) onboard four separate ships. They discovered that the entries in the Oil Record Book (ORB) did not correspond to the Bilge Alarm Data being displayed by the bilge alarm / oil content meter. The 15ppm Bilge Alarm is required to record date, time, alarm status and the operating status of the 15-ppm Bilge Separator. The recording device should also store this data for at least eighteen months and be able to display or print a protocol for official system inspections as required by IMO Resolution MEPC.107(49), REVISED GUIDELINES AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR POLLUTION PREVENTION EQUIPMENT FOR MACHINERY SPACES OF SHIPS. In each case, PSCOs issued a deficiency on the Port State Control Report of Inspection (Form B) requiring that each vessel needed to verify the validity of the entries in the Bilge Alarm data log against the entries in the ORB. The deficiencies found were required to be rectified to the satisfaction of Recognized Organization, Flag Administration, and the U.S. Coast Guard prior to the vessels’ departure from port. The specific monitor in these cases was the BilgMon 488 model manufactured by Brannstrom, a Swedish company. The older model, BilgMon 488 shown on the right, has a battery that is not replaceable by the crew inserted behind the circuit board of the Bilge Alarm. The purpose of the battery is to maintain the stored data and Real Time Clock (RTC) when the unit is disconnected from a power supply. The circuit board contains two contact points which provide the ability to measure the battery voltage. In all four cases, the battery voltage was extremely low and failed to provide the required 2.5 volts necessary to maintain the stored data wi