Detroit Free Press:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070409/NEWS06/70409026/0/NEWS03
State environmental groups want to join federal lawsuit to protect Great Lakes
April 9, 2007
By TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Three Michigan environmental groups asked today to intervene in a federal lawsuit over the state's efforts to halt invasive species from being dumped in the Great Lakes by ocean-going ships.
A new state law took effect Jan. 1 that requires shippers to get state permits showing they treat ocean ballast water before they release it into the Great Lakes.
A coalition of shipping companies filed suit against the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on March 15 to stop the new law.
Shippers say any such effort should be done on the federal level, rather than by individual states. Congress and federal authorities have not made any such moves.
"The shipping industry brings zebra mussels and dozens of other harmful organisms into the Great Lakes and spreads a deadly fish virus through the lakes," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office. "Now it's suing us, Michigan citizens, to stop us from defending our rivers and lakes and the Great Lakes themselves. We're fighting back."
The other two groups seeking permission to join the lawsuit on the state's side are the Michigan United Conservation Clubs and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Invasive species cost the Great Lakes region $5 billion annually in damage and control costs, according to the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy dated December 2005.
Since 1970, 77% of the invasive species -- 36 out of 47 -- have been attributed to ships that travel on the oceans, according to the environmental groups.
The lawsuit is pending in federal court in Detroit.
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