Unfortunately, most policy watchers are not anticipating any changes in the political turf battle between the two Senate committees that Senator Voinovich talks about. Our next big opportunity to see an improvement in ballast regulations is a Coast Guard rulemaking to set ballast water standards. The rulemaking is before the Administration and should be emerging from OMB within a month.
-J Nalbone
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1247905952227490.xml&coll=2
Sen. Voinovich waging battle for Lake Erie's health, stability
Saturday, July 18, 2009
D'Arcy Egan
Plain Dealer Columnist
Port Clinton, Ohio
- Sen. George Voinovich says Ohio is in the midst of the second Battle of Lake Erie, and he's leading the fight against what he calls the "terrorists from abroad."
Voinovich was talking about invasive species, a hot topic on a fishing trip this week to celebrate the 31st annual FishOhio Day on western Lake Erie. A long list of foreign organisms have arrived in the Great Lakes, riding in the ballast of ocean freighters. A new invasive species shows up about every seven months.
"We know about zebra mussels," Voinovich said. "We know about quagga mussels. We know about round gobies. The last several years, we have managed to put barricades in the water in Chicago to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes."
After a decade of dickering and dialogue, Voinovich hopes treatment is soon required for the contaminated ballast water entering the Great Lakes in the bellies of ocean freighters. The legislative fight to manage ballast water, Voinovich says, has become a jurisdictional dispute.
"The problem has been a big battle between the Environment and Public Works Committee, of which I'm a member, and the Commerce Committee," Voinovich said on a sunny Monday morning while casting for Lake Erie walleye.
"The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the Coast Guard. They're saying [ballast water treatment] should be their job. The Environment and Public Works Committee chairman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, says the job belongs to the EPA, which we oversee."
Frustrated by the federal fiasco, states such as Michigan and New York have developed their own ballast-water rules.
Voinovich, a Republican, and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, a Democrat, have worked hand-in-hand on Great Lakes issues.
"Sen. Levin and I have told both committees to work this thing out. We need legislation right now to specifically say what it is these boats have to have in terms of technology to make sure we don't have more invasive species coming into the Great Lakes."
Voinovich agrees the legislation is long overdue.
"We've been trying for a decade to get legislation, and still don't have it," Voinovich said.
"Thank God, the Coast Guard hasn't waited for us to do that. The Coast Guard has been doing a lot better than in the past, checking freighters. . . . Freighters may dump their ballast before coming into the Great Lakes, but there are invasive species left behind in the sediment. When fresh water flows into the ballast tanks, the invasives emerge and are dumped into our lakes."
Voinovich and Levin fought for federal funding for an electric underwater barrier that has been placed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The underwater fence prevents the dreaded Asian carp from swimming from the Illinois River into the Great Lakes, which would be an ecological disaster. The foreign carp have dominated the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and the Great Lakes were next on the list.
"Everyone should feel better now that we've done the job, and the Asian carp is not coming in," said Voinovich, co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force and sponsor of the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2008.
"We won the Battle of Lake Erie in 1812. We can win it again. The recovery of Lake Erie is the greatest legacy we can leave our children."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
degan@plaind.com, 216-999-5158
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Distributed without profit to ESA Great Lakes District members who have expressed an interest in receiving aquatic invasive species information for research and educational purposes.
