EPA proposes new discharge permit for all vessels on lakes, not just ships
June 25, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By JEFF KART | Source: Bay City Times
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a formal proposal last week to require commercial and recreational boaters to get pollution discharge permits similar to those issued to wastewater treatment plants.
The permits would cover everything from deck and hull cleaning to fueling, trash management and graywater discharges, with categories for boats under 79 feet long, and boats 79 feet and longer.
The proposal is the EPA’s response to a 2005 ruling by a California district court in a case focused on invasive species that can travel in the ballast water of large ships.
The court ruled that the EPA had overstepped its authority in not requiring Clean Water Act permits for discharges from the normal operation of vessels.
The agency estimates that 91,000 domestically flagged commercial vessels would be affected by the permits, along with 13 million recreational boats and 8,000 foreign flagged vessels. There are more than 1 million recreational boats in Michigan waters.
“This is the result of Michigan and several other states suing the EPA over the need to regulate ballast water from the ocean-going ships,” said DEQ spokesman Robert McCann.
“This is EPA’s approach they want to take and it’s actually not an approach we agree with.”
More about proposed legislation and comments from boating groups, at the Bay City Times >>
