EPA Enforcing Compliance on All Engine Imports

The US EPA is a now heavily enforcing compliance on all engine imports into the U.S..    For us in particular, it is affecting the import of foreign built yachts being imported for sale in the U.S., or boats purchased by U.S. residents hoping to import the yacht into the U.S. and register the vessel here for private use.

For Marine Compression (Diesel) engines here are some key parameters to make note of:

  1. For engines between 19kw and 37kw they have needed to be compliant with EPA emission standards since 1999.
  2. For engines less than 19kw the EPA emission standard started in the 2000.
  3. For engines with a power rating of 37kw and above the EPA emissions compliance starts at different years based on the displacement of the motor itself particularly in liters per cylinder.    The earliest of these years being 2004 for commercial Diesel engines applications and a few years later for recreationally used diesel engines.

For Marine Spark-ignition (Gasoline) engines , the EPA requirements are as follows:

  1. Outboard motors need to be compliant starting in model year 1998
  2. Personal watercraft (Jet Skis, Waverunner) it is model year 1999
  3. Inboard/stern drive applications started in model year 2010

The information needed for EPA filings when importing a boat are as follows.

  1. Make/ Manufacturer
  2. Model
  3. Model year
  4. Month and year of manufacture of the specific engine being imported.
  5. Serial #
  6. EPA engine family name. (Example from a 2007 Yanmar model 4JH4AE ) Engine family name: 7YDXM2.19D4N. All engine family names look like the example given.
  7. Engine certification date month and year are required .

Engines built before the dates above are not required to be U.S. EPA compliant, however engine information still needs to be supplied for the vessel import.

  1. Make
  2. Model
  3. Year of manufacture
  4. Serial #

American buyers of boats overseas that intend to bring boat to the U.S. to register here in the U.S. will want to pay close attention to the EPA compliance of a boat they are purchasing as with out EPA compliance they may not be able to import the boat into the U.S.

Howard S Reeder Inc