Quote of the day: "I am just shocked," Birkholz said of the suit by the shippers. "If anything, we ought to be suing them."
Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070319/UPDATE/703190424/1003
Shippers fight Michigan law regulating ballast water
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Shipping interests in the U.S. and Canada have banded together to try to strike down a Michigan law that attempts to stop the spread of invasive species such as zebra mussels into the Great Lakes.
Four shipping companies, four shipping associations and one dock company filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit asking a judge to declare the Michigan Ballast Water Act unconstitutional.
"It's disappointing that these groups are choosing to ignore this law that really is designed to keep our Great Lakes protected," Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Robert McCann said today.
The state law, which took effect Jan. 1 as the first such law in the nation, requires all oceangoing ships visiting Michigan ports to obtain permits and to promise not to discharge untreated ballast water.
Ballast water, used to stabilize ships when they are carrying little or no cargo, is typically taken on after ships empty their cargo and emptied before ships take on cargo. Foreign ballast water has been blamed for introducing destructive species such as zebra mussels and sea lamprey to Great Lakes waters.
The shippers, including the Seaway Great Lakes Trade Association and the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, argue in the lawsuit filed Thursday the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with interstate commerce. They also say it casts much too wide a net because only a tiny fraction of the fewer than 100 ships that visit Michigan ports each year discharge their ballast water.
So far, only two companies have sought permits for 12 ships -- a Bulgarian company sought permits for 10 ships and an Ontario company for two ships, officials said.
State Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, said she introduced her legislation after the federal government failed to act against the obvious source for invasive species entering the Great Lakes.
"I am just shocked," Birkholz said of the suit by the shippers. "If anything, we ought to be suing them."
You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.
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