Bill
To Prevent Invasive Species Languishes in Congress
October 17, 2005 — By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Legislation aimed at
preventing foreign fish, clams and marine creatures from entering the Great
Lakes in oceangoing ships is languishing in Congress while the shipping
industry pushes a less restrictive bill.
Environmentalists and Great Lakes officials want legislation that would keep
invasive species from making the trip in ships' ballast water, which is used
to balance the vessels.
The Coast Guard requires ships entering U.S. waters to first exchange any
fresh water ballast for salt water in the ocean, in an effort to cut down on
foreign organisms that can survive in the Great Lakes. Fresh-water organisms
generally have a harder time surviving in salt water, and the reverse is also
true.
But questions remain about the effectiveness of this approach.
The issue is of paramount concern in the Great Lakes region, the world's
largest above-ground fresh-water system. Invasive species like zebra mussels
are already wreaking havoc on the region's ecosystem by decimating the base of
the lakes' food chain.
Adding to the problem is that 80 percent of ships entering the Great Lakes do
not carry ballast because they are carrying so much cargo they don't need the
extra weight.
As a result, they are exempt from the exchange requirements. However, they may
still be carrying residual water in their ballast tanks, and that water can
harbor invasive species that can escape into the Great Lakes.
"U.S. waters remain vulnerable to species invasions because many ships
are still not required to conduct ballast water exchange," said a recent
report by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional investigative
agency.
The National Aquatic Invasive Species Act would phase out ballast exchange by
2011, replacing it with technology that would kill invasive sealife.
"It may be the most important bill in Congress to protect the Great Lakes
from ecological collapse," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National
Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Natural Resource Center. "On average,
once every eight months a new invasive species invades the Great Lakes. This
is a catastrophe waiting to happen."
But the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., has not moved in
Congress in three years. A rival bill, the Ballast Water Management Act, has
made it through the Senate Commerce Committee with support from the
international shipping industry.
That legislation, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, gives the
shipping industry more time to come up with technology to treat ballast water
than Levin's bill.
Inouye's measure calls for standards 100 times more stringent than an
agreement adopted last year by the United Nations International Maritime
Organization. That pact has not yet adopted by member countries.
Inouye's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Before the Commerce Committee voted on the Inouye bill this year, attorneys
general from six Great Lakes states wrote to panel chairman Ted Stevens,
R-Alaska, urging him not to move forward on the measure.
The officials, representing Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New York
and Pennsylvania, said the measure would remove the Environmental Protection
Agency's authority to regulate ballast water and pre-empt state laws.
Helen Brohl, executive director of the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association,
which supports Inouye's bill, argued that EPA was not in a position to
regulate ships' ballast water.
"Our position is that while EPA has a role to play with regard to
reviewing and scientific vetting of technology, it's the Coast Guard's
experience and expertise to implement," she said.
Brohl, whose group represents agents that handle foreign ships in Great Lakes
ports, also said it doesn't make sense to have individual state laws when
implementing a federal standard.
Source: Associated Press