EPA, Ballast Water
A federal court in California has ordered the U.S. EPA to regulate ballast water discharges from freighters, a ruling that has major implications for the Great Lakes shipping industry.
Environmental groups sued the EPA in 1999 after the federal agency declared that ballast water in freighters was exempt from regulations under the Clean Water Act. Environmentalists wanted the EPA to regulate ballast water as a pollutant because ballast water discharged by ocean freighters had introduced several exotic species into San Francisco Bay.
The federal court ruling directed the EPA to restrict the discharge of invasive species into U.S. waters, via freighters' ballast water, by Sept. 30, 2008. Six Great Lakes states joined the lawsuit on behalf of the environmental groups that began the lawsuit against the EPA.
There are more than 180 exotic species in the Great Lakes, many of which were brought here in the ballast water of ocean freighters. Exotic species imported into the Great Lakes in ballast water has cost industries and communities billions of dollars in recent years. Exotic species also pose a threat to the $4 billion Great Lakes fishery.
Zebra mussels, which were imported to the Great Lakes from Europe in 1988 via ballast water, have clogged water intakes and are believed to have caused the near disappearance of diporeia in Lake Michigan. The shrimp like diporeia is an important food source at the base of the Great Lakes food chain. With less food in the lake, some species of fish (whitefish, alewife and salmon) are shrinking. Zebra mussels also have been linked to outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae.
Ballast water discharges by ocean freighters also delivered the round goby to the Great Lakes in the late 1990s. The fish has taken over parts of Lake Michigan and inland lakes, harming perch and other native species.
A 1993 federal law required foreign ships entering the Great Lakes to exchange ballast water 200 miles offshore of the U.S. or enter the lakes with no ballast water on board. Studies have found that those fully loaded ships that enter the lakes without ballast water, remain a breeding ground for exotic species and deadly bacteria that can thrive when mixed into the lakes.
September 21, 2006 6:46 AM | Category: Boats, Great Lakes, Water