Groups Target Foreign Ships: Invasive Species Are the Concern

By Tina Lam, Detroit Free Press

Jun. 22–The legal battle over biologically tainted ballast water from ocean-going ships escalated Thursday as eight environmental groups acted against foreign shippers under the national Clean Water Act.

The ships are blamed for bringing more than a dozen harmful invasive species into the Great Lakes in recent years, including a new fish-killing virus and the infamous zebra mussels.

The National Wildlife Federation and seven other groups took the first step required under the federal act, sending letters Thursday to nine shippers detailing violations from 2003 to 2006. After a 60-day waiting period, the groups can sue each company in federal court, said federation attorney Neil Kagan.

Under the Clean Water Act, Kagan said, ships must get a federal permit and sanitize their ballast water to kill any organisms before discharging it. Citizens may file lawsuits to enforce the act, he said. Since 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency has exempted ocean ships from the requirement. But a federal court in California ruled in 2005 that the law does not allow the exemption.

“We need to do what we can to protect ourselves from invasive species,” since Congress has failed to act, said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the wildlife federation’s Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor. Legislation requiring shippers to treat their ballast has been pending for four years in Congress but has never come to a vote, he said.

Invasive species cost the country about $5 billion each year, according to a 2005 EPA report.

A spokesman for DTE Energy said Thursday the utility spends about $200,000 per year battling zebra mussels. In the early 1990s, city water systems that get water from the Great Lakes and connecting waters like Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River spent heavily to fight infestations of zebra mussels.

For example, Detroit’s regional water system spent $800,000 and Grosse Pointe Farms and Highland Park, which share a water system, spent $200,000. Each city has ongoing costs.

Zebra mussels have spread to rivers and lakes as far away as Nevada and Virginia, and the deadly fish virus, viral hemorrhagic septicemia, has also spread to inland lakes.

Shippers argue that technology to treat ballast is not readily available and such systems are too expensive. Buchsbaum said research by Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality found four available systems, including one similar to what municipal water treatment plants use. The cost would be $250,000 to $500,000 per ship.

In January, Michigan became the first state to require shippers to install equipment to treat their ballast water and to get permits from the state. Shippers sued the state over the new rule. A hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit is scheduled next month on that lawsuit.

Contact TINA LAM at 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com.

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