Question 143Safety & Environmental - 1st Asst/Chief

The correct answer is D) dirty ballast. Ballast tanks that have been washed with crude oil and not properly rinsed with water are considered to contain "dirty ballast." This is because the residual crude oil in the tanks contaminates the ballast water, making it unfit for discharge into the environment without proper treatment. Regulations require that ballast tanks be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed to remove any oil or other contaminants before the ballast water can be considered "clean" and safely discharged. The other answer choices are incorrect because: A) "clean ballast" refers to ballast that has been properly cleaned and rinsed, B) "dedicated ballast" is ballast that is used solely for a specific purpose and not interchanged, and C) "segregated ballast" is ballast that is isolated from the cargo or fuel oil system, which is not the case here.