A U.S. House proposal to regulate ballast water has advanced but is being panned by conservation groups as a free ticket for invasive species to hitchhike into the Great Lakes and other U.S. ports.
The Commercial Vessel Discharges Reform Act of 2011 was introduced by Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., and passed out of the Transportation and Infrastructure on Thursday. The bill, H.R. 2840, now goes to the House floor.
The bill would exempt ballast water discharges from Clean Water Act pollution permits and nullify any state laws that were tougher than a new federal ballast standard. That new standard would be the same one proposed by the International Maritime Organization, which conservation groups say is outdated and would allow too many and too large of invasive species in the ballast of ships entering the Great Lakes. Opponents say technology already exists to treat ballast far beyond the IMO standards.
LoBiondo's legislation comes as both the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Coast Guard are about to announce new ballast regulations to deal with invasive species. It's believed those rules would ramp up regulations and protections as time and technology allow, requiring the shipping industry to upgrade ballast treatment methods.
Supporters, including Great Lakes ship owners, say the bill injects clarity into U.S. ballast regulations.
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"For years, we have mandated vessel operators to comply with two federal standards and as many as 29 different state and tribal standards, several of which are not even achievable. This excessive regulation and lack of a uniform standard has bred uncertainty in the industry with the real potential to cause irreparable economic harm," LoBiondo said in a statement on the committee's website. "My legislation would set a single national standard for the discharge of ballast water which is technologically achievable and enforceable."
U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack, R-North Branch, noted the individual state laws that have different levels of treatment required. Cravaack, who serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, supports the House bill.
"The New York regulations would place excessive, unattainable water quality standards on commercial vessels. The maritime industry has indicated that no technology exists to meet these requirements. This will force the costs associated with Great Lakes shipping to rise, resulting in fewer jobs for Minnesotans,'' Cravaack said in a statement to the News Tribune. "Right now, we should be doing everything we can to encourage growth of our maritime industry -- not the opposite."
But opponents disagreed, saying it allows the industry to continue pumping "living pollution" into the Great Lakes.
"This bill derails recent progress made to develop a strong national policy to stop invasive species from entering the Great Lakes," said Andy Buchsbaum, Director of the National Wildlife Federation-Great Lakes Program Office, in a statement. "The obligation to establish standards to protect water quality, the obligation to provide for public input and states' rights are all erased."
Ballast water is used by ships for stability, and it's believed many of the invasive species now in the Great Lakes causing economic and ecological damage got here in the ballast of ships.
