The Great Lakes Ballast Water Working Group has issued the 2015 Summary of Great Lakes Ballast Water Management. During the year, 100% of the vessels bound for the Great Lakes from outside the EEZ received a ballast water management exam.
In total, all 8361 ballast tanks were assessed during the 455 vessel transits. Vessels that did not exchange their ballast water or flush their ballast tanks were required to either retain the ballast water and residuals on board, treat the ballast water in an environmentally sound and approved manner, or return to sea to conduct a ballast water exchange. Vessels that were unable to exchange their ballast water/residuals and that were required to retain them onboard received a verification exam during their outbound transit prior to exiting the Seaway.
In addition, 100% of ballast water reporting forms were screened to assess ballast water history, compliance, voyage information and proposed discharge location. BWWG verification efforts indicated that there was no noncompliant ballast water discharged in the Great Lakes Seaway system. The BWWG anticipates continued high vessel compliance rates for the 2016 navigation season.
Find out more by reading the summary
