As Jeff Alexander of the Muskegon Chronicle reported last week, the first-ever set of national ballast water treatment standards passed with a hefty majority in the U.S. House.
Citizen PatriotA hometown water hole, Center Lake, has been overgrown with Eurasian milfoil, and exotic weed that has made it difficult to swim and fish.As Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, said, "invasive aquatic species remain one of the single largest economic and environmental threats to the Great Lakes."
So there is little doubt this was a much-needed homogenization of what had previously been piecemeal standards.
That said, the bill only requires that some freighters obey the standards starting next year. It will take until 2015 for all ships to have on-board treatment systems.
Which brings me to another issues: the worrywart in me has to wonder exactly how these megaton ships will "disinfect" their ballast. Does that open our waters up to high levels of toxic bleaching chemicals? Or will the ships be responsible for holding that water and thus be heavier on the trip back, requiring more fuel?
Or if the water is dumped, do invasive species or water viruses pose other problems for land dumped on?
I've never been a skeptic, and I don't plan to start now. But I'd like to see some fine print on exactly how we're going to combat this problem. And why, if the first invasive species showed up 1988, it will take until 2015 to make the issue no longer an issue.
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