Minnesota won’t wait to vote on ballast-dumping ban

Weary of waiting for federal action, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is scheduled to vote on a precedent-setting rule today that will prohibit ships from dumping untreated ballast water into Duluth-Superior harbor and other state waters.

State officials say they have to act because Duluth receives far more ballast water than any other Great Lakes port, making it more at risk from invasive species.

"They come in and compete with native organisms for food, and you get an imbalance that upsets the ecosystem," said Mary Jean Fenske, manager of the MPCA vessel discharge program. Invasive species also have cost millions of dollars by clogging water intake pipes for industry and reducing recreational fishing, she said.

The state's proposal would require all large ships to begin treating their ballast water before dumping it, beginning in 2016. Possible treatment includes filtering through extremely fine screens or sand; using chemicals such as chlorine or ozone; or applying methods such as ultraviolet radiation or heat.

New ships would have to have the treatment technology working by 2012.

Ship owners and trade associations agree that invasive species are a problem, but object to Minnesota's plan.

"This is an issue that has to be addressed at the federal level," said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of corporate communications for the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers' Association. The association includes 16 U.S. companies with 63 ships that operate only in the Great Lakes.

A state-by-state approach will create a patchwork of different regulations that will be an "operational nightmare," he said, and will make shipping more costly for farmers, utilities, and mining companies.

Nekvasil said Minnesota's ballast rule should not apply to ships known as "lakers" that never leave the Great Lakes and have never introduced any foreign invaders into North American waters.

Fenske said lakers need to be regulated because they spread species from port to port.

Waiting years for a solution

Minnesota has been waiting for years for a federal solution, she said. Although some progress is being made, she said, it's not clear when the Environmental Protection Agency will begin to regulate ballast water, and whether those rules will adequately protect Minnesota waters.

In the meantime, she said, foreign and U.S. ships dump more than 5 billion gallons of ballast into Duluth-Superior harbor each year as they load coal, grain and other cargoes.

Millions of gallons of ballast water give a ship stability but can contain invasive species and diseases from foreign ports. The nonnative species get a free ride to the Great Lakes aboard oceanic ships, and may spread throughout the system and into inland lakes.

Zebra and quagga mussels, fish such as the round goby and Eurasian ruffe, and other species have invaded the Duluth-Superior harbor, Fenske said.

Shipping groups have said that the technologies to kill or remove species in huge volumes of ballast water are experimental, costly and unproven aboard large freighters.

However, environmental leaders say that ship owners have been giving those same excuses for decades.

"It's been more than 30 years that we've known that ballast water is a source of invasive species," said Henry VanOffelen, natural resources scientist for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. "There's a long history of denying there was a problem, and then delaying solutions to it."

VanOffelen said that the MPCA's proposed rule is not strict enough and that ships should be required to start treating their ballast water before 2016.

Disease adds urgency

Stoking the urgency is a fish virus called viral hemorrhagic septicemia, which kills fish by causing severe hemorrhaging that results in organ failure. The virus has been found in all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior and has infected 28 freshwater species, including northern pike, walleye and various trout and salmon species.

Reacting to concerns about the spread of disease and potential new invaders, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill last May that directs the MPCA to require shipowners to provide ballast water records and ballast management plans.

The proposed rule would meet that requirement by having firms provide the data as part of applying for a permit.

The Minnesota proposal is the first to regulate ballast water from both lakers and foreign ships traveling in state waters.

It would apply to about 60 lakers from U.S. firms, 65 from Canadian companies, and about 100 to 200 foreign-owned oceanic vessels.

Michigan passed a ballast regulation law that took effect last year, but it only applies to oceangoing ships. No ship has discharged ballast water in Michigan under that law, however, because foreign vessels usually arrive with full cargoes and little or no ballast.

Shipowners challenged the Michigan law in federal court as interference with interstate commerce, but lost the initial case. That decision is being appealed.

Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388