Too many Great Lakes ships are harboring stowaways.
Michigan Attorney
General Jennifer Granholm recently joined colleagues in
three other states to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to help solve the problem of aquatic nuisance species
in the ballast water of Great Lakes ships.
"By the EPA's
own estimates, aquatic nuisance species cause $5 billion
in damages every year," said Granholm, who will become
Michigan's governor Jan. 1.
With the states
of New York, Illinois and Minnesota, Granholm asked the
EPA to repeal its exemption of ballast water from federal
Clean Water Act regulations, said Gregory Bird, acting
attorney general director of communication.
Bird said
the Clean Water Act requires ships that discharge pollutants
to obtain a permit, but ballast water isn't included in
the requirement. Michigan and the other states believe
the exemption contradicts the Clean Water Act, which specifically
covers biological materials, he said.
International
ships entering the St. Lawrence Seaway are required to
exchange ballast water before entering the system, but
some vessels declare that they have no ballast to exchange,
said Roger Eberhardt, Department of Environmental Quality
Great Lakes water quality specialist.
Eberhardt
said that after those ships enter the system, they don't
have to follow any regulations. Once in the system, they
will take on ballast water, but some of their leftover
ballast might be exchanged in the lakes, he said.
"The ships
that don't declare any ballast water are the ones we're
after," Eberhardt said.
Exotic species
are taken up in ballast water, often from the Black and
Caspian seas, and released in the Great Lakes, causing
damage and changing lake ecology, Bird said. He said exotic
species have wreaked havoc in Great Lakes waters for decades.
