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by Elizabeth Dunbar | Source: Forbes

ST. PAUL - The state pollution control agency approved strict standards for ships that discharge ballast water into Lake Superior, hoping they will cut down on the spread of harmful invasive species.

Unlike federal proposals pending in Congress, the new permit process will cover both oceangoing vessels and ships that stay within the Great Lakes.

…. by 2016, ships will be required to treat their ballast water before dumping it into Minnesota waters.

Details of interim and longer-range management, enforcement at Forbes >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

After months of quagmire, a compromise may be emerging. Under a new Senate “discussion’’ bill, the criteria for killing organisms (how small and how many are allowed in the ballast water after treatment) would increase to 1,000-times greater than the IMO standard. That would bring the federal legislation in line with California’s law and was expected to spur Boxer to allow the ballast bill to advance.

Some issues remain, however. Boxer and California environmental groups want the Clean Water Act to apply to ballast discharges in addition to the new law. That would allow citizens to sue if they felt the ballast laws weren’t working to protect waterways. Industry officials and many Senators say that amounts to double jeopardy, putting the shipping industry under two separate sets of rules.

Another problem for some Minnesota groups, including the PCA, is that the federal legislation still doesn’t include Great Lakes freighters.

More issues, full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: Canadian Press

Senator Barack Obama will propose a $5-billion trust fund for Great Lakes cleanup and restoration if elected president, his campaign said Tuesday.

The fund, to be phased in over 10 years, would be the centrepiece of a plan that also includes designating a co-ordinator to oversee Greats Lakes programs and a stepped-up fight against invasive species.

… The trust fund would be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for oil companies, Obama’s campaign said. It would support a variety of projects including sewage system repairs, cleanup of polluted sediments and restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat.

The Great Lakes co-ordinator, based in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, would help develop a priority list for federal, state and local initiatives.

Obama’s program also pledges a “zero toxics” policy for the lakes, which make up nearly one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. It calls for measuring pollution already entering the lakes, determining the sources and reducing future deposits.

Another priority would be strengthening federal standards against mercury, a leading Great Lakes pollutant, the campaign said.

The plan also promises a more aggressive effort to prevent additional exotic species from reaching the lakes, particularly the Asian carp, which has infested the Mississippi River and is moving toward Lake Michigan.

It says Obama would work with the eight Great Lakes states to stop freighters from bringing exotics to the region in their ballast water.

Full story, quotes, and McCain camp reply at Canadian Press >>

Source: The Beacon, Column

Last week I began writing about a trip my brother, Tom Allen, took on the lake freighter Herbert C Jackson July 2-10. His friend, Charlie Ontko, had invited Tom to go on a working trip on this boat. They left from Toledo, loaded with coal, went across the western end of Lake Erie, up Detroit River, Lake St Clair, St Clair River and most of the length of Lake Huron.

… On July 5 the Herbert C Jackson was traveling “light ballast” (no freight) as she made her way out the St Mary’s River, through Whitefish Bay and thence onto mighty Lake Superior. Destination: Duluth, Minnesota, at the extreme western end of the lake.

The weather was good, sunny and fine. However, the water temperature of Superior was only 48 degrees so that kept things cool. The guys wore jackets or sweatshirts most of the time.

On Saturday night, just as darkness was coming down, they passed the Keweenaw Peninsula jutting out from the Michigan shore. Tom called home and said they were close enough to see lights from vehicles on shore.

…At Superior they loaded coal for Marquette, Michigan. They didn’t get off the boat at all because they were waiting for officials to check their identification papers. Soon they were underway again, back out the river and heading toward where they would round the Keewenaw Peninsula and then “short-cut” down to Marquette.

At Marquette they unloaded the coal, moved to another dock and loaded iron ore pellets. Tom told us later that the loading and unloading procedures are fascinating. The boat carries ballast water and while loading and unloading the boat is kept level fore and aft. Sometimes loading is slowed while ballast water is pumped out. The crew can actually load freight faster than they can pump water out!

… In the Detroit River, the mail boat came out to meet them. Called by the sailors, “mail in a pail”, a pail is let down and mail and other items are transported to or from the freighter in a closed bucket. Also, another sailor came aboard at this time, leaving the smaller boat and climbing up a ladder on the side of the big boat. Since the Herbert C Jackson was so heavily loaded and low in the water, the new man coming aboard did not have far to climb. Again, all this happened while the two boats were underway and, again, is “routine”.

Lots more to read of Tom’s 8 days on the Herbert C Jackson at The Beacon >>

Mike Simonson | Source: Business North

A Wisconsin Ports Association letter blames California U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer for the delays. Lake Carriers Association President James Weakley agrees.

“As things stand right now, yes, the bill is effectively stalled.”

Weakley and several Great Lakes port directors want the ballast bill passed…to end the threat of closing the St. Lawrence Seaway to shipping. That threat comes after an appeals court ruling in July that said ballast water must comply with the Clean Water Act, and the EPA can’t exclude ballast water from the Act.

Weakley says the ballast water bill would simply allow the Coast Guard to decide ballast water standards…not have state-to-state regulations.

…Wisconsin U.S. Senator Russ Feingold says he’s working to get the bill through Congress, and acknowledges that the stumbling block is the Clean Water Act.

Read the full story at Business North >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A coalition of conservation groups has found what it considers a yawning hole in a bill that would require overseas freighters to install ballast treatment systems to protect the Great Lakes and other waterways from invasive species.

The 14 conservation organizations, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, sent a letter Friday to Wisconsin Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl urging the Democrats to oppose the measure that has so far enjoyed widespread support.

Their worry is the legislation may supersede provisions of the Clean Water Act and insulate the shipping industry from future suits under that law.

It might also pre-empt states such as Wisconsin from taking their own actions to protect state waters from biological pollution that is costing billions of dollars in beach-trashing algae outbreaks, fish and wildlife declines and troubles for water-dependent industries in the Great Lakes region.

“A lot of us have been puzzling for some time as to why Great Lakes groups have embraced what started as an industry bill, and still has serious defects,” said Nina Bell, executive director of the Portland, Ore.-based Northwest Environmental Advocates, one of the groups that sued the EPA over the ballast issue.

Bell argues that the shipping industry supports the ballast bill because it fears having to comply with the Clean Water Act, and the language in the new bill can be interpreted to exempt ballast water from that law. That could prevent citizens and states from taking future legal action against the industry.

She noted the bill also designates the Coast Guard, not the EPA, as the lead agency for enforcing ballast regulations, and the Coast Guard has a history of ignoring congressional directives when it comes to regulating ballast discharges. Further, the bill prohibits states from passing future tougher ballast laws if they determine the federal law isn’t getting the job done. Wisconsin and Minnesota are at the moment considering such measures.

Bell also has a problem with what she said is an overly generous grace period for the shipping industry to install adequate ballast treatment technology. Under the House bill, ships that install treatment systems that accomplish what she sees as unacceptably loose protections would be exempt from having to install better systems in the following decade. In some cases, she said, that means ships could be exempt from paying for more meaningful treatment systems until 2021.

Much more to this story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel >>

Source: Great Lakes Maritime Task Force Press Release

Great Lakes interests are urging Great Lakes Senators to take the lead and enact the world’s most stringent Federal ballast water standards to end the introduction of non-indigenous species into U.S. waters. Legislation passed by the House of Representatives and approved by the Senate Commerce Committee would require vessels entering U.S. waters to comply with standards that are 100 times greater than existing international standards.

The House legislation, H.R. 2830, sponsored by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), and supported by Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), ranking Republican on the Coast Guard subcommittee, has been endorsed both by the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force (GLMTF), an association of shipping companies, labor organizations, shipyards and ports, and a wide-ranging coalition of environmental groups, including Great Lakes United, National Wildlife Federation, Healing Our Waters Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

“For more than a decade Congress has wrestled with this issue, but this year we have seen a number of breakthroughs,” said Patrick J. O’Hern, President of the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force and Vice President and General Manager of Bay Shipbuilding Company. “The ballast water title from the House’s Coast Guard Authorization Bill (H.R. 2830) is supported by both commercial maritime interests and the vast majority of environmental interests. The legislation is tough. An official from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared that the pending legislation is ‘much more stringent’ than any standards the EPA could apply under current law.”

It appeared the legislation would move forward last week, but objections from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) have stalled approval.

“It is deeply regrettable we lost what may have been the best chance for enactment of ballast water legislation ever,” said Daniel L, Smith, 1st Vice President of GLMTF and formerly National Executive Vice President of American Maritime Officers. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Stanford Law School

STANFORD — The Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School today announced that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of environmental organizations seeking to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate ship discharges under the Clean Water Act.

Dealing a setback to the shipping industry, the decision follows a 2005 lower court ruling that the EPA had illegally exempted ship discharges from Clean Water Act requirements. That decision gave the agency until September 2008 to end the regulatory exemption and issue permits to ships, an order that the EPA appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

“The EPA spent nearly ten years fighting against using the nation’s only comprehensive law to combat an environmental plague that is costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars,” said Deborah Sivas, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School, which represented the three plaintiff groups. “We are gratified that the Appeals Court has held the EPA accountable so that this country can begin to control the dangerous tide of invasive species.”

The court’s ruling today upholds the lower court’s order directing the EPA to take specific action to ensure that shipping companies comply with the Clean Water Act and restrict the discharge of invasive species in ballast water. In mid-June, the EPA issued a draft permit to regulate all vessel discharges. The draft permit requires treatment of a wide range of pollutants contained in ballast water and many other types of ship discharges.

Nina Bell, Executive Director of the Portland, Ore.-based Northwest Environmental Advocates, said the court’s decision will properly shift some of the burden of invasive species from taxpayers to shippers. “The Ninth Circuit’s decision is very important for the taxpayers who have been paying the huge price of the EPA’s continuing refusal to implement the Clean Water Act,” said Bell. “If the EPA had used its Congressional mandate thirty years ago, this country would have been using the Clean Water Act to effectively control ship discharges for all that time,” she added.

The plaintiff groups cautioned that the shipping industry has already shifted its fight from the courts to lobbying Congress. “As soon as we won the district court case in 2005, the shipping industry immediately turned to Congress for a special exemption from the Clean Water Act, to preserve their ability to pollute at the nation’s expense,” Bell said.

Live species from other countries are carried to U.S. waters in ballast water that ships use for stabilization. The ballast water is discharged into bays, estuaries, and the Great Lakes as ships approach port and when cargo for export is loaded. Over 21 billion gallons of ballast water from international ports is discharged into U.S. waters each year. The cost of damage caused by invasive species to the U.S. economy is estimated in the billions of dollars annually. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Duluth News Tribune

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled in favor of environmental groups pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ship ballast discharges under the Clean Water Act.

The decision upholds 2005 and 2006 lower court rulings that the EPA must begin enforcing the Clean Water Act for all ship discharges starting Sept. 30 this year. The EPA and shipping interests had challenged the lower court rulings.

… The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is moving forward based on the court rulings to regulate ships’ ballast discharges in Minnesota waters of Lake Superior, requiring permits of all ballasted ships on Sept. 30 and gradually requiring ships to treat ballast water over the next eight years.

Full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by John Flesher | Source: Forbes.com

Foreign species that slipped into the Great Lakes in ballast tanks of oceangoing cargo ships cost the regional economy at least $200 million a year, according to a University of Notre Dame study released Wednesday.

Cost by industry, results of second report at Forbes.com >>

by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold has a message for anyone who thinks closing the St. Lawrence Seaway to oceangoing vessels is too radical to even consider.

“These shippers should know that we’ll do what it takes to protect the Great Lakes, and nothing should be completely taken off the table,” Feingold, a Democrat, said this week.

A federally funded study released Wednesday reveals the toll of the invasive species that oceangoing ships have dumped in the Great Lakes is now costing the regional economy at least $200 million a year. It is adding pressure to the politicians wrestling over how to fix the No. 1 reason for the problem — contaminated ship-steadying ballast water discharged by the relatively small number of overseas vessels that ply the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The overseas shipping industry on the Great Lakes has dwindled in the decades since the Seaway opened in 1959 to the point that last year an average of less than two overseas ships entered per day for the nine months a year it’s open.

A coalition of about 100 conservation groups representing millions of citizens first proposed the idea last year of banning those ships from the Great Lakes until the ballast problem can be solved, though the concept has been scoffed at by the shipping industry as unrealistic.

…A separate study released Wednesday by the National Research Council says closing the U.S.- and Canadian-owned Seaway to oceangoing vessels is not a viable option because, among other things, it “appears impractical from a political perspective.”

Feingold sees it differently. He and most conservationists prefer a legislative solution that will require all oceangoing ship operators to install treatment systems to kill unwanted organisms sloshing around in their ballast tanks.

Such a bill passed in the U.S. House this summer, but the issue remains stalled in the Senate.

Much more to this excellent story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel >>

Sonja Puzic | Source: Windsor Star

Black box data recorders in ocean-going ships could be used to monitor saltwater concentration in the vessels’ ballast tanks and prevent the transport of aquatic invasive species into the Great Lakes, according to a report released this week.

If such technology was widely used in the shipping industry, the ballast tanks’ salinity levels would be transmitted electronically to port authorities before the ship even enters North American waters, eliminating the need for inspectors to physically examine the tanks.

The use of black boxes to help prevent more critters from entering the Great Lakes is one of a number of recommendations made in the report titled Great Lakes Shipping, Trade and Aquatic Invasive Species, prepared by a National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies committee.

Benefits, details, interviews at the Windsor Star >>

by Tom Henry | Source: Toledo Blade

While the EPA defends its new rules, the National Wildlife Federation fears the agency is just doing more window dressing.

“We need something with teeth,” said Jordan Lubetkin, spokesman for the group’s Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor, who called the EPA’s response “nothing more than the status quo.”

“We need to light a fire under Congress and specifically the Senate for a problem that’s been brewing for decades,” Mr. Lubetkin said.

A bill to the group’s liking passed the U.S. House in April. It would require ships to install technology that will kill all exotics and micro-organisms that are in their ballast tanks, though allowing for some flexibility in the type of technology that is used.

The U.S. Senate has not acted on it.

… In 2005, Michigan became the first state to create its own permitting system - something which observers viewed as a cue for Washington that it was tired of the foot-dragging. It can impose fines of up to $25,000. Ohio has been considering a similar program.

“The states are obviously frustrated. That’s why they’re moving forward with their own legislation,” said James Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association.

Full story includes nice rundown on major invasives that have hit the lakes over the years >>

Source: WOOD-TV

A federal court has ordered the EPA to develop ballast regulations by Sept. 30. The agency, which has long exempted ballast discharges from anti-pollution requirements, is appealing. But it has proposed a general permit for shippers and is taking public comments this month.

Benjamin Grumbles, EPA’s assistant administrator for water, described the proposed permit as “a stopgap approach for regulating ballast and other vessel discharges in the most practical way possible” while Congress debates the matter.

The EPA permit would require oceangoing freighters to dump ballast water at least 200 miles from shore, then refill the tanks with seawater to kill remaining freshwater creatures.

That isn’t a new idea; Congress ordered the same thing in 1990 for saltwater ships en route to the lakes.

But the Coast Guard, which oversees compliance, opened a gaping loophole by exempting ships with full cargo loads _ about 90 percent of the “salties” calling at Great Lakes ports. Their ballast tanks are presumably empty, although they often hold residual pools of water and mud teeming with aquatic life.

Under the EPA permit, ships with no ballast on board would have to rinse their tanks with saltwater before entering U.S. territorial waters. Canada imposed the same requirement two years ago.

Read why the proposed tank “swishing” isn’t resolving the debate, at WOOD-TV >>

by Jeff Alexander | Source: Muskegon Chronicle

A fatal virus that recently killed thousands of fish near Milwaukee has [Michigan] state officials fearing it’s just a matter of time before the disease surfaces on this side of Lake Michigan.

Michigan officials who have been checking dead fish for signs of VHS said it has not shown up in Michigan’s portion of Lake Michigan. Yet.

“Was the Wisconsin die-off surprising to us? Not at all,” said Jim Dexter, Lake Michigan basin coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “We knew VHS was present in Green Bay last year and we know it’s now available to be transferred to other species.”

Other than the Great Lakes, the only other Michigan water body where VHS has been confirmed was Budd Lake, near Harrison.

Read the full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Source: USCG

CLEVELAND - The Great Lakes Ballast Water Working Group (BWWG) has released the 2007 Great Lakes Ballast Water Management Report.

BWWG meets regularly throughout the year to develop, enhance and coordinate bi-national enforcement and compliance efforts to reduce the introduction of aquatic invasive species via ballast water.

Download the report (PDF) here.

By TOM WANAMAKER | Source: Watertown Daily News

MONTREAL — Determining the salinity level of water in the 16 ballast tanks of a 600-foot oceangoing cargo ship seems like a monumental task. But in reality it’s not unlike, and almost as easy as, checking the engine oil in a Buick.

And because it guards the entrance to the St. Lawrence Seaway, the only water route into or out of the Great Lakes, the St. Lambert Lock in Montreal offers a perfect inspection site.

“We now know from research and science that salt water is a very effective killer of freshwater organisms.”

On May 5, Terry Jordan, a Seaway Development Corp. marine specialist, boarded the cargo ship M/V Federal Kivalina to inspect the ballast water in its 16 tanks. Because the ship was laden with cargo, all pumpable ballast had been removed from the tanks, leaving 2 to 6 inches of residual water and sediment at the bottom of each one. Fully loaded, the ship’s tanks can hold a combined 12,000 cubic meters of ballast water. In either case, the new regulations required a full inspection.

On deck, Mr. Jordan met with the ship’s bosun, Mohammed Sanghri, who is in charge of the deck crew, to perform the inspection.

Mr. Sanghri uncapped a slender tube, called a sounding pipe, protruding from the tank up through the deck. He then inserted a metal weight…

Read this excellent, detailed story at the Watertown Daily News >>

Source: CBC.ca

U.S. researchers say they have developed a technique to kill harmful marine life that hitches a ride on cargo ships from other parts of the world.

The invasive species found in ballast tanks, which are used to steady ships as they load and unload cargo, could be eliminated by microwave emitters fitted to the exit valves on the tanks, according to researchers from Louisiana State University’s Agricultural Center, whose work will appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Read the full story at CBC.ca >>

By Tom Elko | Source: Twin Cities Daily Planet

Ballast water — the water that large ships take on to stabilize themselves when they’re running without cargo aboard — is a hot topic in Minnesota and in Washington, D.C., these days.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy recently won a court ruling forcing the Minnesota Pollution Control Authority (MPCA) to take immediate action to prevent the spread of VHS. The MPCA was already in the process of developing a ballast water control policy but encountered resistance from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which advocates for federally standardized regulations.

More to the story, interesting quotes at the Twin Cities Daily Planet >>

See Also: House passes Coast Guard bill despite Bush veto threat - Associated Press

John Myers | Source: Duluth News Tribune

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation requiring all saltwater ships entering U.S. ports to treat their ballast water by 2016.

The measure, part of a broader bill covering the U.S. Coast Guard’s mission and funding, is the strongest ballast water measure ever approved aimed at reducing the flood of exotic aquatic species arriving from foreign waters.

The bill, HR 2830, passed 395-7 and sets tough standards for the number and size of living organisms that ships can release when they release ballast water, requiring treatment technology be installed on new ships starting in 2009 and on all ships by 2016.

…The new ballast regulation has support from both the Great Lakes shipping industry and several environmental groups.

Read the full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>