Duluth News Tribune:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=55636§ion=News&freebie_check&CFID=72563579&CFTOKEN=48802942&jsessionid=8830835b30d5260437b6
Ballast water breakthrough?
John Myers Duluth News Tribune
Published Thursday, December 06, 2007
The ballast water of saltwater ships that enter the Great Lakes could be treated effectively and relatively inexpensively at an on-land treatment plant, according to a study paid for by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The report, released this week, used the Port of Milwaukee as an example to show that the time to pump or barge water to an on-land treatment facility wouldn’t be prohibitive.
Moreover, on-land facilities could be built relatively inexpensively — about $2 million each.
While no facility was actually built, a feasibility study was conducted by the Milwaukee-based office of Brown and Caldwell, an environmental engineering and consulting firm.
In the study, ballast water was in theory pumped from an oceangoing freighter onto a barge that would then move the ballast water to an on-land treatment plant while the ship was loading bulk cargo.
“We tried to make it as convenient as possible, to accompany the loading and unloading process and to make sure it wasn’t in the way or taking more time,’’ said Roger Larson, deputy watershed management bureau director for the Wisconsin DNR.
It was the first extensive look at on-land treatment of ballast water as opposed to trying to kill exotic species in ballast water with an on-ship system.
“Nobody had really looked at whether this was feasible. We think we’ve found that it is,’’ Larson said, noting it could be effective killing species as small as viruses.
On-shore treatment may make more sense for small ships that can’t afford or don’t have space for an on-board ballast treatment system. The on-shore system also would be easier to monitor and permit than multiple on-ship systems, Larson said.
Environmentalists and others say ballast water is responsible for introducing perhaps hundreds of exotic species that are wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes and saltwater coastal ports.
For example, it’s believed zebra mussels, spiny water fleas and now the deadly fish disease called VHS came to the Great Lakes in ballast tanks. More than 180 invasive species have been found in the Great Lakes.
“This is good news in the fight against invasive species,” Matthew Frank, Wisconsin DNR secretary, said in a statement. “Further study and a pilot project still need to be done, but these study results take us one step closer to finding a way to turn off the spigot of invasive species arriving in the Great Lakes via ballast water discharge.”
Legislation has been introduced in Congress to mandate ballast water treatment. Lawsuits are pending against state and federal agencies seeking to force them to regulate ballast water as pollution. And a federal judge has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ballast.
So far, the Congressional action has stalled.
Wisconsin officials support a uniform federal law and national permit program to help regulate exotic species in ballast.
“But folks are getting impatient. They want to see something done to protect their waters and their fishing. And that’s why we did the feasibility study,’’ Larson said.
The DNR study accompanies the ongoing study in Superior called the Great Ships Initiative that’s using an on-land facility to simulate experimental on-ship treatment systems. That facility is beginning to test various elements that could be used on ships to kill living creatures in the ballast tanks of ships, including heat, cavitation, chemicals and ultra-violet light.
The DNR feasibility study assumed that the onshore treatment would be done on overseas vessels, not domestic ships, and only ships that discharge ballast water.
The Port of Milwaukee handles 322 commercial vessels carrying nearly 4 million tons of commodities, including 82 overseas vessels. Coal, salt, grain and cement are the top four commodities handled, said Eric Reinelt, director of the Port of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s second-largest port to Superior. The combined port of Duluth-Superior sees nearly 1,200 vessel visits each year, of which about 140 are saltwater freighters.
---
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving aquatic invasive species information for research and educational purposes.
