A great article from the Lake Carriers Association/ Canadian Shipping Association 70th international joint conference, reporting on needed changes of the Great Lakes shipping industry in light of two huge realities: invasive species and climate change. Proactive planning around such challenges and obstacles can identify sustainable development opportunities if industry and we, as a region, are open to change. Dr. Gail Krantzberg nails it in the closing, when she says: “Do things completely new. Change the paragon. Change the way we do business."”
Canadian Sailings:
http://www.canadiansailings.com/full_story.cfm?articleid=0003&issue=0713&cfid=14095101&cftoken=83234307
Industry faces ballast-water, emissions challenges
LCA/CSA International Joint Conference Special Report- Environmental issues may change face of Great Lakes shipping
By Brent Frederick, Associate Editor
April 30, 2007
The invalidation of a U.S. Clean Water Act exemption that the Environmental Protection Agency provides to vessel operators is "the issue that has the potential to completely reshape the face of shipping in the Great Lakes," the LCA/CSA 70th annual International Joint Conference was told.
"Change of some kind, potentially significant, is in the air," said Mark Ruge, a partner with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, LLP in Washington. D.C., during a session on legislative issues.
Mr. Ruge brought the audience up to speed on the March 2005 case in which a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco invalidated the Clean Water Act exemption that the EPA has given to vessel operators since 1972. Environmental groups had brought suit, arguing that the Clean Water Act should be applied to vessel operators. Joining the groups in the suit were the attorneys general of almost every state on the Great Lakes.
The Clean Water Act is the U.S. framework for ensuring that navigable waters are not polluted. It requires an EPA-issued permit for anything emitted by a point source into navigable waters. Discharges "incidental to the normal operation of a vessel" are exempt from the permitting requirement.
Following a remedy phase, the U.S. District Court judge invalidated the entire exemption (the lawsuit was on ballast water only), meaning that every discharge from a vessel would be subject to the Clean Water Act, and she instructed the EPA to begin a rule-making process for permitting. The regulations are to be in place by Sept. 30, 2008.
The EPA and the Shipping Industry Ballast Water Coalition, which includes the Lake Carriers' Association, have appealed the decision.
Mr. Ruge said the magnitude of losing the appeal would be huge considering there are 27 types of discharges from a vessel, including rainwater hitting the deck and going into the water and paint flecking off a ship into the water.
Moreover, winning the appeal might not even be considered a victory as it could lead to more state involvement, Mr. Ruge warned.
"The states have been frustrated for a long time by the fact that there is no federal standard for ballast water," he said. "Of course, the worst possible scenario would be if each of the eight states on the Great Lakes decides to do what Michigan has done and set up their own regime, so that when you come through the Great Lakes, you would literally have eight regimes depending on which state's water you were in.
"If indeed this gets knocked out in the Appeals Court, I can see a situation where the states decide to jump in and regulate themselves."
The ultimate wild card, Mr. Ruge said, is the U.S. Congress, which could introduce a ballast-water bill of its own. "And then, of course, if they pass a ballast-water bill, that would just be ballast water. That would leave open the question of regulation of the other 26 types of discharges from vessels," he said.
"It's a very uncertain future. Although I cannot predict how it will come out, I can predict with some certainty that we are on the verge of significant environmental change for the shipping industry on the Great Lakes."
Speaking on behalf of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, Jacques Bellavance, manager of industry and government affairs for Shell Canada Ltd., discussed pressures on the marine industry at a session on environmental issues.
He said Environment Canada and the EPA are evaluating the possibility of creating North American Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) zones where marine fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 1.5 per cent, or emission control technology such as scrubbers achieving equivalent reductions, may be required. The study results are expected in early 2008. If SECA zones are created, he urged that they be adopted at levels that are feasible and affordable. The solution may not even be a SECA, he said, but rather an agreement between Canada and the U.S. to establish controlled areas.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bellavance warned that Intertanko's proposal to convert the global fleet from marine fuel to higher-priced marine diesel with 1 per cent sulphur content by 2012 and 0.5 per cent by 2015 is "gaining momentum" in many countries. But studies have shown that an upgrade to marine diesel from marine fuel would result in a 15-per-cent increase in greenhouse gases emitted by petroleum refineries in Europe.
Mr. Bellavance told the shipowners that there are several options for reducing sulphur oxide emissions. They are (from least expensive to most expensive): emission trading (for example, install scrubbers on some bigger vessels to compensate for emissions from other ships); install emission controls – scrubbers – on all ships; use marine fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 1.5 per cent; use marine diesel only, if compatible with a ship's engine; and use alternative energy sources such as liquefied natural gas.
He noted that seawater scrubber trials are set to begin on the West Coast this summer, with the results available in December 2008.
Mr. Bellavance warned that future demand for increased low-sulphur marine fuel may result in a shift of supply logistics. Also, if demand for low-sulphur marine fuel exceeds supply derived from low-sulphur crudes, the cost of the former increases, which means other emission reduction options such as marine diesel and/or on-board scrubbing may be more cost effective.
He said the marine industry's ability to pass on increased fuel costs to customers may be impacted by its competition with rail and truck transport, and that economic demand for land-based low-sulphur heavy fuel may constrain low-sulphur marine fuel availability.
With so much still in limbo, Mr. Bellavance said all options should be kept open, and he urged shipowners to lobby government decision-makers.
During the same session, Gail Krantzberg, director of the Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy at McMaster University in Hamilton, told the industry that it needs to be able to explain environmental benefits in economic terms.
In her presentation entitled Making the Lakes Great, Dr. Krantzberg encouraged the examination of alternative transportation scenarios, something that the marine industry "clearly provides."
"Policy-makers tend to react better when the public understands, the public sees a need, and the public also calls for something," Dr. Krantzberg said.
"Getting the message out to the public about how ship operations can improve quality of life by getting those trucks off the road, getting a public understanding of the role you play to protect human well-being helps influence policy-makers."
She warned that climate change, and the increased severity of storms and dropping lakes levels that come with it, is a threat to shipping.
"Adaptation will be necessary," she said. "I don't believe we are really preparing for the economic crisis that is going to face us. There are opportunities with climate change. There are also risks. We're not really preparing our societal systems to the scenarios that are being painted around climate change.
"Protection of this region is an investment in a revitalization economy. There is money to be made in cleaning up past contamination. There is money to be made in innovative technologies. Do things completely new. Change the paragon. Change the way we do business."
---
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving aquatic invasive species information for research and educational pu
