More On Ballast Water Discharges Settlement

Mar 8: Yesterday, WIMS reported that a number of environmental organizations and U.S. EPA had announced a settlement which will the groups said would "curtail invasive species that have been wreaking havoc on American waters for decades." [See WIMS 3/8/11]. The agreement requires EPA to issue a new permit regulating ballast water discharges from commercial vessels. As reported, the settlement also requires EPA to encourage states to develop regionally consistent approaches to setting ballast water standards.

    Michigan officials also issued an announcement on signing a settlement agreement EPA to better regulate ballast water from commercial vessels. Michigan and a coalition of other Great Lakes states along with the leading environmental organizations ultimately prevailed in establishing baseline regulations after suing the EPA in Federal district court in California to force the Agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate ballast water discharges. EPA's first "Vessel General Permit" (VGP) regulating invasive species transported in ballast water was issued in 2009. 

    According to a release from Michigan, instead of requiring modern ballast water treatment technologies, EPA simply required ships use the inadequate "swish and spit" saltwater flushing process developed over a decade ago. The new permit also failed to ensure all state water quality standards were met throughout the interstate waters of the Great Lakes. Under the Federal regulations, states with more protective standards still faced the risk of pollution from ballast water dumped under less stringent guidelines from neighboring states. An effective minimum "floor" standard to unify the various Great Lakes states' water quality standards was still required for the permit to fully protect the region's waterways.

    Governor Snyder said, "The Great Lakes define the State of Michigan. But our waters are now home to more than 180 aquatic invaders, introduced and spread by unregulated ballast water. I urge the EPA to move swiftly on plans to offer a long-term protection strategy for the Great Lakes."  Michigan officials said the settlement agreement outlines a process for the EPA to establish common protective standards for ballast water discharges to United States waters. They outlined key elements of the settlement agreement as: Arranging for scientific reports, speeding up the time line for issuance of the next Vessel General Permit; Facilitating regional communication for ballast water regulation; and, Providing information on the development of the next VGP requirements.

 

    Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said the State will continue to pressure Federal regulators for basin-wide, common standards. Schuette said, "It's time to bring the fight against invasive species into the 21st century. This agreement moves the EPA forward to more effective methods that will protect our Great Lakes and the jobs that depend upon them." EPA has enlisted experts from the National Academy of Sciences to help develop its next VGP. The experts will craft a risk analysis on release of organisms from ballast water.

    Also, EPA's Science Advisory Board will report on the performance and availability of ballast water treatment technology. Both reports are expected to be completed by May 31, 2011. EPA's current VGP expires December 19, 2013, but through the settlement agreement, EPA committed to drafting the next VGP by November 30, 2011, and a new final VGP by November 30, 2012. 

    The agreement also requires EPA to provide information and facilitate communication with Michigan and the other Great Lakes states after the issuance of the next draft VGP. Patricia Birkholz, Director of Michigan's Office of the Great Lakes, said she looks forward to working with other Great Lakes states and Federal partners to craft strong and effective common standards. She said, "This issue impacts everyone who has a stake in the health of our waters. The list of new invasive species grows yearly, and we need to halt the introduction and spread of these foreign invaders. At the end of the day, we want strong ballast water standards and consistent protection for all the Great Lakes."

 

    Access a release from the Michigan Attorney General (click here). Access the settlement agreement (click here). Access a blog posting from the Lewis and Clark law school (click here).

Enviros Claim Victory In Ballast Water Discharge Settlement

Mar 8: A number of environmental organizations and U.S. EPA announced a settlement which will the groups said will "curtail invasive species that have been wreaking havoc on American waters for decades." The agreement requires EPA to issue a new permit regulating ballast water discharges from commercial vessels. In a release the groups indicated that ballast water is the number one source for a rogue's gallery of aquatic nuisances such as the so-called "fish Ebola," the spiny water flea, and zebra and quagga mussels. These and other invasive species now "sap the American economy of billions of dollars annually." The groups said that after a long battle over how living pollution should be dealt with under the Clean Water Act, the settlement requires EPA to complete scientific reviews of the steps that ships should take to protect human health and the economy of communities on American coasts and in the Great Lakes.

 

    The following groups were party to the settlement: National Wildlife Federation (NWF), Indiana Wildlife Federation, League of Ohio Sportsmen, Minnesota Conservation Federation, Prairie Rivers Network, Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, Alliance for the Great Lakes, Ohio Environmental Council, Northwest Environmental Advocates, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and People for Puget Sound. The Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School and Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC) at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, OR, represented three of the organizations. 

 

    Thom Cmar, attorney for NRDC said, "Until this point, EPA's permit has left an open door to new invasions from ballast water dumping. This settlement should prompt EPA to treat 'living pollution' as aggressively as it would an oil spill or toxic release. With aquatic invasions occurring all over the country, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes to San Francisco Bay, this action is long overdue."
 
    The settlement resolves court challenges brought in 2009 by the conservation groups, who contended that EPA's current Vessel General Permit does not adequately protect U.S. waters from invasive species. Before the Vessel General Permit was issued in 2008, EPA had allowed ships to dump ballast water and other pollution without Clean Water Act permits. Conservation groups first petitioned EPA in 1999 to begin regulating ship discharges under the Clean Water Act, eventually prevailing in Federal court in California in 2005, a legal victory which they said "helped set the stage for today's settlement."
 
    Nina Bell, Executive Director of Northwest Environmental Advocates said, "This settlement represents the first time in 35 years that EPA has agreed to control discharges of ballast water from ships in the same way that other industries are controlled when they discharge pollution to the nation's waters. The EPA permit we challenged in this lawsuit did nothing more than allow shippers to continue business as usual -- passing on the economic and environmental costs of invasive species to taxpayers." By requiring numeric limits on discharges of living pollution, the new permit should help to stem the rapid and broad movement of invasive species throughout American waters by forcing ships to adopt technologies to treat their ballast water. EPA has also agreed to require additional monitoring and reporting of vessels' ballast water discharges in the new permit.
 
    Under the settlement, EPA has agreed to publish a draft of a new Vessel General Permit by November 2011, and to issue a new permit by November 2012, that would not go into effect until the current permit expires in December 2013. By allowing over two years from the time the permit is proposed to the time the new standards would go into effect, ship owners will have more  time to comply with treatment requirements than they would otherwise receive. The settlement also requires EPA to encourage states to develop regionally consistent approaches to setting ballast water standards.

 

    Access a release from the organizations (click here). Access the settlement agreement (click here). Access a release from the Michigan Attorney General (click here). Access a blog posting from the Lewis and Clark law school (click here).

Members Introduce Stop Asian Carp Act of 2011

Mar 3: The Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) applauded the introduction of the Stop Asian Carp Act of 2011, a bill designed to stop the spread of Asian carp and other invasive species via the Chicago Area Waterway System. The legislation, introduced by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, within a year and a half, to prepare an action plan that outlines the feasibility and the best means of achieving ecological separation of the once-naturally-separated Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. Such separation is essential if the movement of Asian carp and other invasive species between the two basins is to be stopped.
 
    The Chicago Area Waterway System, a series of canals and rivers in and near Chicago, is a manmade connection of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. The waterway is a vibrant transportation corridor, a route for pleasure boats, and a water management system; any study, as is the case with this bill, must take transportation, economic, and water management factors into account. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission and many others have repeatedly identified separation as the only viable way to permanently address the invasive species problem caused by that direct link between the two basins. In March, 2010, citizen advisors to the commission -- from both Canada and the United States -- passed a joint resolution making the same recommendation. The legislation complements efforts underway by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative to investigate ways to achieve separation.
 
    Commissioner Michael Hansen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point said, "This important legislation directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to apply their considerable engineering expertise to answer a complex question: how do you achieve ecological separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi basins in the Chicago Area? This legislation, if enacted, would significantly expedite the process to identify the ways to achieve separation."

 

    Specifically, the bill requires the Army Corps to create an action plan that includes the best options for permanently separating the Mississippi River Basin from Lake Michigan. Creation of the plan must begin within 30 days of the bill's enactment, and the Army Corps must send a progress report to Congress and the President within six months and again in 12 months. The full plan must be completed and given to Congress and the President 18 months after the bill is enacted. It will be monitored by the Council on Environmental Quality to ensure its thorough and timely completion. The Corp would also examine other modes of transportation for the shipping industry and influence new engineering designs to move canal traffic from one body of water to the other without transferring invasive species.

 

    The Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) currently underway by the Corps holding its last two public scoping meetings in Ypsilanti on March 8 [See WIMS 3/1/11], to gather input on the Study. The purpose of GLMRIS is to evaluate a range of options and technologies to prevent the transfer of aquatic nuisance species (ANS), such as Asian carp, between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River through aquatic pathways. The public scoping comment period ends on March 31, 2011.

 

    Access a release from the GLFC with links to related information (click here). Access a release from Sen. Stabenow (click here). Access more information from the Asian carp website (click here). Access the GLMRIS website for information and to submit comments (click here).

Great Lakes Commission Outlines Legislative Priorities

Mar 1: Citing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system as an "environmental and economic asset of vital importance to the nation," the Great Lakes Commission (GLC) called for an ongoing Federal commitment to the $2.2 billion Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). The action headlined the Commission's Fiscal Year 2012 legislative priorities, adopted at its 2011 Semiannual Meeting held in Washington, DC as part of the annual Great Lakes Day events on Capitol Hill.

 

    Other legislative priorities announced by the Commission include: providing funding to expedite efforts to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes and supporting effective invasive species prevention programs; and rebuilding critical wastewater infrastructure through full funding of the Federal Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Revolving Fund programs.

 

    To heighten their impact in Washington, the Commission's legislative priorities are coordinated with six other regional agencies and organizations, generating "one regional voice" for restoring and effectively managing the Great Lakes. In addition to the Great Lakes Commission, the legislative priorities are endorsed by the Healing our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, Council of Great Lakes Industries, and the Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition.

 

    Access a lengthy release from GLC and link to a full list of legislative priorities for FY2012 and supporting documents (click here).

NRDC Reports On Problems With Asian Carp Electric Barrier

Feb 28: Thom Cmar a Chicago attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) indicated in a blog posting that an attorney for the Army Corps is saying that the Corps had decided to finalize and release a study related to the Asian Carp issue and the effectiveness of the electric barrier known as the Smith-Root report on electric barrier operating parameters." Reportedly, the Corps will release the study "by mid-March."

 

    Cmar said, "This is a small victory for transparency in what has often felt like an opaque decision making process around the Asian carp issue…  one in which the Army Corps does not seem to move with the urgency that the threat to the Great Lakes seems to require. I have little doubt that the combination of Dan Egan's article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and our threat of a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of Prairie Rivers Network, played a big role in persuading the Army Corps to release this report more quickly than it originally planned."

 

    He indicates that, since last October, the Army Corps has had the study in its hands, by contractors from Smith-Root Inc. who worked at the Corps' Vicksburg, MS lab to determine how effective the electric barriers should be when operated at different parameters. But the Corps had continued to say that the study was still a draft and not yet formally approved and therefore they did not have to release it.

 

    Cmar indicates that Dan Egan of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the Corps has refused to release the study report even to its own independent technical advisory panel – even though, at the same time, it insists that the report shows that the electric barriers are working to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. However, Dan Egan's reporting also uncovered that the "still-secret report" does not even attempt to examine whether the electric barriers will work to stop juvenile fish smaller than 6 inches from swimming past it and into Lake Michigan

 

    So, Cmar says, "the Army Corps' current plan for keeping Asian carp out of Lake Michigan is based on a series of "questionable assumptions:  that the electric barriers are working, that Asian carp DNA found past the barriers does not prove otherwise, and that there are no small juvenile Asian carp currently attempting to cross the barrier."

 

    Access the complete detailed posting from Cmar with links to the Egan article and extensive additional information (click here).

Ann Arbor Area Meeting On Great Lakes & Mississippi River Study

Mar 1: On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is holding two public scoping meetings in Ypsilanti from 2:00 to 8:00 PM at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest to gather input on the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS). The public is invited to attend these scoping meetings and to provide comments on GLMRIS. Identical presentations about the study will be given at 2:00 PM and 5:30 PM, each followed by the comment period. The purpose of GLMRIS is to evaluate a range of options and technologies to prevent the transfer of aquatic nuisance species (ANS), such as Asian carp, between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River through aquatic pathways.

    Using input obtained during the scoping period, the Corps will refine the scope of GLMRIS to focus on significant issues, as well as eliminate issues that are not significant from further detailed study. Issues associated with GLMRIS are likely to include, but will not be limited to: significant natural resources, such as ecosystems and threatened and endangered species; commercial and recreational fisheries; recreational uses of the lakes and waterways; effects of potential ANS controls on waterways uses such as: flood risk management, commercial and recreational navigation; and statutory and legal responsibilities relative to the effected waterways. The Ann Arbor area meeting is the last one before the public scoping comment period ends on March 31, 2011.

 

    Access a meeting announcement from the Corps with contact information (click here). Access complete information regarding GLMRIS, the meeting agenda and scoping requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (click here).

EPA Seeks Proposals For $40 Million In GLRI Funding

Feb 25: U.S. EPA announced that the Agency is requesting applications from states, municipalities, tribes and nonprofit organizations for new projects to protect and restore the Great Lakes. The President's budget has proposed a total of $300 million in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in Fiscal Year 2011, with approximately $40 million of that total allocated to EPA for distribution through this competitive grant program. The final budget, which is highly controversial [See WIMS 2/22/11], is subject to Congressional appropriation. Applications are due by noon on April 11. Webinars on the application process will be held at 10 AM on March 9 and March 17. 

    EPA Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager Susan Hedman said, "These grants will support critical work to protect the Great Lakes, which provide drinking water to 30 million Americans and support a multi-billion dollar economy. This year we are particularly interested in projects that create new jobs -- for instance, using a conservation corps model for environmental restoration." Grants are available to fund a wide range of projects, including work to target invasive species, to reduce the impact of toxic substances and nonpoint pollution, to protect public health, and to clean up heavily contaminated 'Areas of Concern' around the Great Lakes Basin.

 

    Access a release from EPA with links to more information about applying for GLRI grants and the GLRI (click here).