Oct 23: Obama Administration officials will hold their sixth regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday, October 29, 4:00-7:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Marriott Cleveland Downtown at Key Center, Ballroom (Salon D and E), 127 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44114.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, consists of senior-level officials from Administration agencies, departments, and offices including: Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Cameron Davis, Senior Advisor to the U.S. EPA Administrator; Rear Admiral Sally Brice O’Hara, Deputy Commandant for Operations, U.S. Coast Guard; and Captain Byron Black, Senior Maritime Safety and Security Advisor to the Secretary, Department of Transportation.
The Task Force is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of the oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes [See WIMS 6/15/09]. It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning. The public is encouraged to attend and an opportunity for public comment will be provided.
Members of the public can access the meeting in three ways: by attending in person at the Cleveland meeting; by calling into the listen only phone line (800-369-2133; participant code: 8314284); or via live webstream at the website Great Lakes Live (link below). Public comment can also be submitted online at the link below.
Access the White House Ocean Policy website for complete background and to submit comments (click here). Access the Great Lakes Live website (click here).
Dear Sirs, Yesterday October 22 2009,discussions about h.r.3619 in the House of Representatives seems to show that once again that previous legislation on ballast water passed by the house may have been as Rep Oberstar has reportedly expressed just “bullshit”. the House of Representatives discussion about again addressing ballast water with the latest Coast Guard Authorization Act.H.R.3619. “Lastly, I am concerned with our inability to include language that would establish uniform national standards for vessel discharges, including ballast water. I have spoken on numerous occasions with Mr. Oberstar, and I want to take particular note to thank Mr. Oberstar once again for his keen interest in solving this problem and bringing so many interested parties to the table. I know that Mr. Oberstar shares my concerns and that of many of my colleagues, both on the committee and in Congress, to address this issue through legislation this year. I thank him for his offer to work with us, and I look forward to bringing the bill to the floor in the very near future.”
ReplyDelete“Although there are many good provisions in this bill worth noting, I would like to talk briefly about a provision that was not included in this year’s bill, ballast water management.
As an environmentalist and a protector of our Great Lakes, I believe we must act quickly and properly on ballast water management. Although aquatic invasive species enter into our ecosystems through many different pathways, such as natural migration, attaching themselves to ships and aquaculture, the most common pathway is through ballast water.
Ballast water is pumped onboard a ship to control its stability at sea. Ships often take on ballast water at a foreign port and discharge it at their USA destination port. When a ship pumps harbor water into its ballast tanks, it usually also sucks up aquatic species from that harbor. When those ballast tanks are emptied, those often-dangerous species are introduced into a new ecosystem and they may perpetuate as an invasive species.
Since some ships are capable of holding millions of gallons of ballast water, the potential for spreading invasive species is unavoidable. Once an invasive species takes hold in a new environment, it has the ability to disrupt the balance of an ecosystem and cause significant environmental and economic harm.
The amount of harm caused to this Nation enters the tens of billions of dollars in damage each year. For example, zebra mussels have cost the various entities in the Great Lakes Basin an estimated $5 billion for expenses related to cleaning water-intake pipes, purchasing filtration equipment and so forth. Sea lamprey control measures in the Great Lakes cost approximately $10 million to $15 million annually. On top of these expenses, there is the cost of lost fisheries due to these invaders.
For these reasons, combating aquatic invasive species is a central element of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration strategy and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to protect and restore the Great Lakes.
Last year, I worked closely with Chairman Oberstar to include a title on Ballast Water Management in the Coast Guard bill, which would have created a uniform national standard for ballast water treatment. The goal was to have no living organisms in ballast water discharged by ships after 2013.
Although I would have liked this bill to once again include a provision on ballast water management, I am cognizant that this provision may be one of the reasons this bill has been held up in the Senate. However, I believe Congress must act, and that there must be a uniform national standard. A patchwork of different State laws is untenable, especially in the Great Lakes where a ship may visit numerous ports in numerous different States, not to mention Canada.
Therefore, I look forward to working with the Chairman to address ballast water management in another bill very soon."