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U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has announced its submission of an Emission Control Area application to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). If the application is successful, it would require steep pollution reductions from large ships in U.S. and Canadian coastal waters.

According to the EPA’s data, the creation of an ECA would save up to 8,300 American and Canadian lives every year by 2020 by imposing stricter standards on ships that emit harmful emissions into the air near coastal communities. The United States is proposing a 230-mile buffer zone around the nation’s coastline in order to provide air quality benefits as far inland as Kansas.

“This is an important – and long overdue – step in our efforts to protect the air and water along our shores, and the health of the people in our coastal communities,” said Jackson. “We want to ensure the economic strength of our port cities at the same time that we take responsible steps to protect public health and the environment in the United States and across the globe.”

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said, “EPA’s announcement today is music to my ears because it means the United States is stepping forward to take a strong leadership role on clean air around ports.”

Under this program, large ships that operate in ECAs will face stricter emissions standards designed to reduce the threat they pose to human health and the environment. These standards will cut sulphur in fuel by 98 percent, particulate matter emissions by 85 percent, and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 percent from the current global requirements.

To achieve these reductions, ships will be required to use fuel with no more than 1,000 parts per million sulphur from 2015, and new ships will have to use advanced emission control technologies from 2016.

Air pollution from ships is expected to grow rapidly as controls on other mobile sources take effect and port traffic increases. Ocean-going vessels currently dock at more than 100 U.S. ports, over 40 of which are in metropolitan areas that fail to meet federal air quality standards.

EPA led the U.S. effort to develop the proposal in coordination with federal partners such as the Coast Guard, State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Canada joined the U.S. as a co-proposer on the ECA proposal, advancing a strategy for a coordinated geographic emissions control program.

The proposal, submitted to the IMO on Friday, March 27, is one part of a comprehensive EPA program to address harmful emissions from ocean going vessels under the National Clean Diesel Campaign and the Clean Ports Program. Other elements include adoption of a Clean Air Act rulemaking process, which EPA plans to finalize this year.

The IMO, will begin reviewing the proposal in July. Approval of the proposal could occur as soon as next year.