This court ruling is good news. But it will be challenged, and if it survives that process, EPA will probably take 10 years to write the regulations to implement the court order.
A faster solution, although too radical for politicos to handle, is to shut the Welland Canal down, as a federal government scientist proposed in December, until the shipping industry can demonstrate it can keep nonnatives out of the Great Lakes. Off-load the cargo to lakers, trains or trucks until they do.
Ships No Longer Allowed to Dump Ballast
By TERENCE CHEA, AP
SAN FRANCISCO (March 31) - A federal judge ruled Thursday the government can no longer allow ships to dump without a permit any ballast water containing nonnative species that could harm local ecosystems.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately repeal regulations exempting ship operators from having to obtain such permits.
"This is a slam dunk for healthy oceans," said Sarah Newkirk, clean water advocate for the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy. "The court decision will prevent a vast amount of pollutants from the shipping industry from entering U.S. waters."
EPA officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
In 1999, the Ocean Conservancy and four other environmental groups petitioned the EPA to repeal the ballast-water exemption. They claimed the Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of pollutants, including biological materials - such as invasive species - into U.S. waters without a permit.
When the EPA denied the petition, the conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco in 2003.
Invasive species are known to cause significant economic and environmental damage. Marine species such as mollusks often are inadvertently transported in the ballast water of ships and discharged at ports far from their origins.
The bay's two most destructive species that originated in ballast water are Chinese mitten crabs, which clog irrigation and drinking water pipes, and Asian clams, which consume large amounts of plankton at the expense of other marine species.
Invasive species in San Francisco Bay cause more than $40 million in economic damage each year, Newkirk said.
Posted by Dave at April 1, 2005 07:17 AM