US Congress voted a proposal establishing a nationwide policy for dumping ballast water into U.S. waterways. Environmental groups opposed to this plan, urging U.S. Senate to protect communities, environment, and economy from ballast water invaders such as zebra and quagga mussels, which have wreaked economic havoc from the Great Lakes to the West Coast.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to scuttle Clean Water Act protections that are essential in the ongoing effort to protect U.S. communities, businesses, and people from the environmental and economic harm wrought by aquatic invasive species.
Tucked away in the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act are provisions that would cripple the ability of the nation to protect itself from aquatic invasive species introduced into domestic waters via ballast water discharge.
Conservation groups are urging the U.S. Senate to reject the House-passed bill and pass a clean defense authorization that does not contain provisions that undermine the nation’s ability to protect itself from harmful aquatic invasive species. They say that this act not only would strip ballast water discharges from coverage under the Clean Water Act, but the amendment would block the future adoption of more protective discharge standards. As a whole, ”the provisions of this legislation would enshrine a regulatory scheme that places the economic burden associated with invasive species on the nation’s taxpayers rather than on the international shipping industry that is responsible for bringing those species to our nation’s waters”, the Conversation Groups added.
“The Clean Water Act is the nation’s only comprehensive law that can combat an environmental plague of aquatic invasive species that costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars and touches every single state in the union with its destructive powers,” said Nina Bell, executive director of Northwest Environmental Advocates in Portland, Oregon.
One of the main pathways for non-native species to enter U.S. waters is through the ballast water discharge from vessels originating in foreign ports. The zebra mussel, for example, entered the Great Lakes via ballast water discharge and proceeded to upend the Great Lakes ecosystem—fueling rampant and sometimes toxic algae growth, collapsing native fisheries, and harming recreation. Zebra mussels have since spread into the Mississippi, Tennessee, Hudson, and Ohio River basins and as far West as California, Nevada, Colorado, and Utah.
States impacted by aquatic invasive species have also strenuously opposed the provisions, including California, Oregon, and Washington and the attorneys general of Michigan, New York, Maine, Oregon, Washington, and Rhode Island.
The Clean Water Act is the most effective way to protect U.S. waters from the serious threat posed by aquatic invasive species introduced by ballast water discharge. The Clean Water Act obligates the U.S. EPA to protect U.S. waters from biological pollutants—living, breathing organisms—by establishing limits on how many microorganisms can be present in discharged ballast water.