This is the best the shipping lobby can do?
To say there are 182 invasive species in the lakes, with two-thirds arriving since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, is to also say over 60 species arrived on their own or through another vector. In the big picture, we have a very serious problem with combined sewer outflow into the Great Lakes every time we have a bad rainstorm. Yet, we rarely see environmentalist groups calling for the closing of local waste water treatment plants.
Well, it's good to see the lobby admit that it's responsible for 2/3 of the problem. And as for shutting waste water treatment plants -- they actually protect the environment as their primary purpose. Ships don't.
But this is especially hard to take:
Shipping companies are working aggressively to find a solution to the introduction of non-indigenous species through ballast waters discharges.
They have been working not so aggressively for 20 years. When do we call their bluff?
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/OPINION01/608290308/1008
Posted by Dave at August 29, 2006 07:24 PM