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by Dan Egan | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

The fish have migrated to within 15 miles of the new barrier. The only defense for the Great Lakes for the past several years has been a smaller, weaker “experimental” barrier that has a history of failing and that biologists believe is not strong enough to repel juvenile carp, which, because of their size, are less affected by electrified water.

Some Great Lakes advocates are beyond frustrated with the way the Army Corps of Engineers has handled the project, noting that the ravenous filter-feeders, disparagingly dubbed the “100-pound zebra mussel,” could destroy what’s left of the lakes’ ecological integrity and multibillion-dollar fishing and tourist industries.

“They are not looking out for the public’s interest,” charges Tom Marks of the New York chapter of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council. “They’re looking out for the barge operators.”

To date nearly $1 million has been spent to examine such things as what would happen if someone tumbles off a barge and into the electrified water in the barrier zone, which covers a half-mile of canal.

According to documents the Journal Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Navy’s Experimental Diving Unit was hired to do that job. It took $100,000 and more than a year of computer modeling and analysis, but the Navy has finally reached a conclusion: Similar to falling into icy water, you might be incapacitated and die. Or, you might not.

Read the full story, concerns, quotes and many more details at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>

Source: RedOrbit

A new rule requiring all ships to flush their ballast tanks in the Atlantic Ocean before entering the Saint Lawrence Seaway should be enough to save the Great Lakes, an expert says.

Collister Johnson, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation said the rule solves the issue of protecting the five lakes from invasive species carried by incoming ships.

“I just wonder sometimes if (environmental groups) appreciate that they’ve won the battle. And whether we ought to move on to other things like sewage runoff, and infrastructure, and other things that are problems for the Great Lakes,” Johnson said.

Read the full story at RedOrbit >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

Minnesota and eight other states are suing the Bush administration over what New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says is an illegal administrative ruling that could hurt fisheries and contaminate drinking water.

The states contend the federal government has created a loophole that could allow the transfer of polluted or contaminated water by ship from one water body to another where it would do harm.

Full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: WWJ.com/Great Lakes IT report

Today, Lt. Gov. John Cherry, acting for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, signed a capital outlay bill authorizing Michigan Technological University to spend $25 million to build a Great Lakes research center along the Portage Canal on the University’s campus.

…The project will include construction of a three-story research building and enhancement of Michigan Tech’s waterfront, said W. Charles Kerfoot, professor of biological sciences and director of the Lake Superior Ecosystem Research Center.

…The new center will focus on a number of pressing issues in upper Great Lakes coastal research, including research into the effects of global climate change, the impact of invasive plant and animal species, over-fishing and the reproductive failure of native fish, loss of coastal wetlands and habitats along tributaries that feed the Great Lakes, historical contamination from mining and the impact of toxic contaminants that persist, and the effects of population and pollution on coastal biodiversity.

Lots more details, quotes, information about the new lab at WWJ.com Great Lakes IT Report >>

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 >>

by Tom Meersman | Source: Star Tribune

Weary of waiting for federal action, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is scheduled to vote on a precedent-setting rule today that will prohibit ships from dumping untreated ballast water into Duluth-Superior harbor and other state waters.

State officials say they have to act because Duluth receives far more ballast water than any other Great Lakes port, making it more at risk from invasive species.

The state’s proposal would require all large ships to begin treating their ballast water before dumping it, beginning in 2016. Possible treatment includes filtering through extremely fine screens or sand; using chemicals such as chlorine or ozone; or applying methods such as ultraviolet radiation or heat.

New ships would have to have the treatment technology working by 2012.

Ship owners and trade associations agree that invasive species are a problem, but object to Minnesota’s plan.

Read the full story at the Star Tribune >>

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 >>

R.G. Edmonson | Source: Journal of Commerce Online

WASHINGTON — A stalemate in the Senate over the regulation of ships’ ballast water has led a coalition of carriers to urge lawmakers to make sure any ballast water standards are consistent throughout the United States.

The letter expresses concern that under the Clean Water Act, states are encouraged to regulate pollution sources within their boundaries. Ships that call at ports in many states could face “a patchwork of overlapping, inconsistent federal and state requirements.”

…Carriers are pessimistic that senators can reach an agreement in time to stop a court-ordered EPA general permit system under the Clean Water Act on Oct. 15.

In addition to World Shipping, the letter was sent by the Chamber of Shipping of America, American Waterways Operators, and Intertanko, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners based in Oslo.

Read the full story, parts of the letter at the Journal of Commerce Online >>

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 >>

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 Jeff Alexander | The Muskegon Chronicle

GRAND HAVEN — Cleaning up Great Lakes toxic hotspots and restoring damaged fisheries could lay the foundation for Michigan’s economic recovery, according to business leaders and environmentalists.

That was one of the messages delivered this morning at a Grand Haven press conference for the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives boat tour. A 60-foot trimaran called The Earth Voyager is visiting 13 cities this summer to promote the benefits of environmental restoration; the vessel is in Grand Haven through Sunday.

Read the full story, lots of specifics at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

By ELIE DOLGIN | Source: Journal Sentinel

The invasive New Zealand mud snail, first detected in Lake Ontario in 1991, now inhabits four of the five Great Lakes, scientists reported Friday at the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting in Milwaukee.

The pea-size, spiral-shaped snails, which reproduce by cloning themselves, are on the march across the country after being introduced by fishing activity in western U.S. rivers and by ship ballast water in the Great Lakes.

…The mud snail is the latest species in a string of crustaceans, mollusks, fish, plants and microbes to invade Lake Michigan.

A parasitic fluke keeps mud snails’ growth at a true snail’s pace in New Zealand. But in the United States, they have few parasites or predators.

Details from Penn State biologist, more at the Journal-Sentinel >>

Source: EPA Press Release

Over 30 representatives of local, state and federal government agencies and community groups will test their readiness to respond to aquatic invaders in the Great Lakes in a three day exercise in Presque Isle Bay, Pa., starting July 29. Participants will exercise on the water on July 30. This is the first time that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office has brought together a variety of groups in such an exercise. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is hosting the pilot exercise which may be repeated elsewhere in the Great Lakes and other watersheds.

During the exercise, participants will trawl for fish and practice using fish electroshocking equipment to prepare for a real-life situation where these techniques could be used to confirm the presence of an invasive species. By working together in an exercise, agencies will learn ways they can combine assets and overcome jurisdictional barriers to respond quickly to the introduction of harmful aquatic species. Read the rest of this entry »

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 >>