Resources board urged to act on ballast
Conservationists petition to have board use its regulatory authority
By DAN EGAN
degan@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 6, 2007
The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board wants to explore the idea of proceeding on its own to regulate ballast discharges from oceangoing ships, just as the state regulates other water-polluters.
With legislation to create a uniform national law for ballast discharges stalled for several years in Congress, a group of conservationists has petitioned the board to not wait for lawmakers to act. They want the board to use its regulatory authority to begin a ballast-discharge permit program.
George Meyer, a lawyer who is the executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and the former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the department has the authority to act on its own. DNR attorneys don't disagree.
The board this week instructed department staff members to look into the feasibility of a Wisconsin-only discharge program and report back at the next board meeting in January.
"They were very interested in doing something," Meyer said. "They wanted to know if our legal analysis was correct, and what the department could ask for in terms of (ballast) treatment if they determine they do have jurisdiction."
Ballast water is used to steady a less-than-full cargo ship on its journey between ports. The problem is that water can be teeming with invasive species, and those creatures can jump ship when ballast water is exchanged for cargo when a ship arrives in port.
Species such as zebra mussels and round gobies are believed to have hitched rides on oceangoing ships into the Great Lakes, which are now home to more than 180 foreign species.
On average, a new invader is discovered in the Great Lakes about every six months, and the science shows that most invasions in recent decades can be traced to contaminated ballast from ships arriving from the Atlantic Ocean.
Todd Ambs, administrator of the DNR water division, said his department would explore its options before reporting to the board, but one worry was how such a rule could put Wisconsin ports at a competitive disadvantage.
Systems to treat ballast are still being developed, and they could be costly. If Wisconsin goes it alone and requires such systems, ships might simply call on other Great Lakes ports. Michigan has adopted its own ballast discharge rules, but no other Great Lakes states have done so.
"There are ways you could do this that could be very detrimental to the shipping industry, and, at least from what we've looked at, there are ways to . . . do it in a way that is workable to the shipping industry," Ambs said.
---
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving aquatic invasive species information for research and educational purposes.
|
