|
Led by the National Wildlife Federation, 25 fishing, environmental and conservation groups —including the Wisconsin Association of Lakes—have signed on to official comments supporting strong ballast water regulations by the Wisconsin DNR.
In March 2008, the DNR determined it has legal authority to regulate ballast water discharges under current law that implements the Federal Clean Water Act. The Federal Clean Water Act requires that anyone discharging “biological materials” (which can include aquatic invasive species and diseases) into Wisconsin waters have a discharge permit. The determination was made in response to a December 5, 2007 petition by 13 state, national and local conservation groups (including the Wisconsin Association of Lakes).
In 2006, a Federal Court ruled that ballast water met the definition of “biological pollution”, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must begin regulating ballast water discharges from freighters under the Clean Water Act by Sept. 30, 2008.
But EPA’s permit requirements developed in response, are insufficient to prevent aquatic invasive species from entering the Great Lakes (and eventually inland lakes), and weak Federal rules are not good enough to protect Wisconsin water quality standards.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is proposing a general permit for commercial vessels, which includes effluent discharge standards for ballast water. Both Michigan and Minnesota have issued state permits regulating ballast water discharges under independent state authority.
Governor’s budget outlines proposed permit program
Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed permit program would require all ocean-going vessels that discharge ballast water at Wisconsin ports to greatly step up their removal of invasive species within the next three years.
Under the proposal, Wisconsin would require all ocean-going vessels to cleanse their ballast water 100 times more stringently than a proposed international standard by 2012.
By 2013, all newly constructed ships that dock at Wisconsin ports would need to cleanse their ballast water 1,000 times more stringently than the international standard.
None of Wisconsin's proposed new standards would be required of "lakers," the ships that only travel the waters of the Great Lakes.
Why the bother about ballast?
When ocean going ships—called “salties”—flush their ballast water tanks, they can deposit exotic stowaways directly into the Great Lakes. Some of these hitchhikers—zebra mussels, sea lampreys, viral hemorrhagic septicemia, and the New Zealand mud snail—have thrived in their new habitats, becoming invasive species that are causing big ecological and economic damage.
Currently, 185 invasives inhabit the Great Lakes and most have gotten there when oceangoing ships have flushed their ballast tanks in the Great Lakes.
The state now spends $200 million annually to offset the damage to commercial and recreational fishing caused to by invasive species (such as when zebra mussels clog water inlet pipes and sea lamprey and white perch overtake native fish habitats).
The Wisconsin Lakes Convention, held earlier this March, focused on the global, regional, and local challenged posed by aquatic invasive species. For inland lake enthusiasts, the advice from national experts was clear: keep invaders out of Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes are linked directly to 12% of the world's ports. Those ports, in turn, are connected to 80% of the world's ports. And those ports are connected to 99% of the world's ports. |
