Great Lakes Group Urges Foreign Ship Ban: It Wants to Stop Tainted Ballast Water

By Dan Egan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 20–The St. Lawrence Seaway is to open for its 49th consecutive season Wednesday, but not everyone is thrilled about another summer of overseas ships doing business in the Great Lakes.

Frustrated by the mounting number of invasive species arriving in the bellies of overseas freighters, some conservationists are proposing a simple but radical solution: Ban the ships from the Great Lakes until they can figure out how to stop discharging contaminated ballast water.

“This is being done out of frustration,” said Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. “This is a decision we’ve made because the federal government has failed to protect the Great Lakes.”

Federal legislation to deal with ballast has languished for several years. New foreign species, meanwhile, continue to be discovered in the Great Lakes at a rate of about one every six months.

Michigan has decided to deal with the problem on its own, and for the first time this year, it plans to require overseas freighters to not discharge ballast water or take steps to ensure it is not contaminated with foreign organisms.

Similar rules are being considered in other Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin.

Dean Haen, president of the Wisconsin Commercial Ports Association, said he supported federal legislation to regulate contaminated ballast discharges, but finding the technology remained a challenge.

“If our state wants to do anything with regards to ballast water, I’d suggest they help fund research to develop technology to stop invasive species and keep the economy moving,” he said.

Nalbone said there were alternatives to moving foreign cargo into the region, among them transferring it from overseas ships onto trains.

She said it might be inconvenient, but it made economic and environmental sense because of the costs of coping with the unwanted species that overseas ships are bringing in.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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