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Issue Background:
When not fully loaded, vessels must take on water - or ballast - to maintain their stability. In some cases, ballast water contains aquatic organisms which may be harmful to the environment. Since 1994, ocean-going vessels transiting the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway have been required to exchange ballast at sea, prior to entering the St. Lawrence Seaway. Ballast exchange has been identified as one means of reducing the likelihood of transfer of non-indigenous species.
In recent years, state governments in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere have become impatient with the federal response to this problem. A number of state legislatures have enacted their own ballast water legislation. AGLP opposes state regulation of interstate and international shipping and believes that conflicting state statutes will lead to a chaotic regulatory environment that will cripple the shipping industry, while failing to solve the problem.
AGLP endorses a strong, uniform federal approach to the protection of the Great Lakes - and all U.S. waters - from invasive species via ballast water. AGLPA urges Congress to adopt such an approach.
AGLPA Position:
AGLPA supports a federal approach to the control of Aquatic Nuisance Species and opposes state regulation of ballast water discharges from ships. AGLPA supports enactment of federal legislation to require all ships entering U.S. ports to treat ballast water with the goal of removing harmful aquatic organisms. Such legislation should: 1) create a uniform, federal regulatory program requiring the treatment of ships’ ballast water, 2) establish a ballast water treatment standard, 3) set deadlines by which vessel owners have to install treatment systems, 4) authorize federal research programs focused on ballast water treatment technology, and 5) establish an orderly technology verification and approval system.
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