Ballast Water Discharge Standard Rulemaking (Aug 28, 2009)
DHS. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard is proposing new standards for controlling foreign organisms that might hitch a ride to the United States in a ship's ballast water. The proposal also would establish new procedures for approving onboard equipment to clean ballast water before discharge. For the first time, the regulation sets upper limits for the number of organisms per unit of ballast water. The current rules only require vessels to make mid-ocean ballast exchanges, a control technique that has frequently been attacked as inadequate to prevent the introduction of alien species into U.S. waters. The Coast Guard's proposal closely follows recommendations adopted last month by the International Maritime Organization’s marine pollution committee.
Consideration will be given to comments received on or before Dec 4 , 2009.

The Coast Guard Tackles Non-Indigenous Species with Ballast Water Management (PDF | 359 KB) Wrack Lines 9:1 Spring/Summer 2009
University of Connecticut. Connecticut Sea Grant.
Provides a summary of the Coast Guard's activities in ballast water management.

MERC Invasive Species Work Featured on NPR (Jul 15, 2009)
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
A scientist working with the Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC) on invasive species control, has had his group's efforts featured in an National Public Radio's All Things Considered story. The scientists have focused on controlling the plant and animal life that may invade the Chesapeake Bay's waters by way of an inbound ship's ballast water.

Vessel Discharges Require Permit (Dec 18, 2008)
Environmental Protection Agency.
A new general permit will reduce releases of 26 types of discharges from vessels operating in U.S. waters. Beginning Dec 19, 2008 (later changed to Feb 6, 2009) approximately 61,000 domestically flagged commercial vessels and 8,000 foreign flagged vessels will need to comply with the Final Vessel General Permit. As a result of a court ruling, vessel owners and operators who have previously been exempt from Clean Water Act requirements for the last 35 years will now require a permit. The permit covers non-recreational vessels 79 feet in length or longer, such as cruise ships or oil and cargo tankers, but excludes fishing vessels of any length, unless they discharge ballast water.

Great Lakes Law Weblog: Aquatic Invasive Species and Ballast Water Pollution
Great Lakes Environmental Law Center.

Great Lakes Shipping, Trade, and Aquatic Invasive Species (2008)
National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council.
Transportation Research Board Special Report 291.

Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC): A Maryland Ballast Water Initiative / Cummings Join Kick-Off of Maritime Environmental Resource Center (Jul 22, 2008; PDF | 177 KB)
Maritime Environmental Resource Center.
The new Maritime Environmental Resource Center at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will be based in Solomons in Southern Maryland and receive about $5 million over five years from the state and federal governments. Scientists plan to test ultraviolet light, filters and chemicals to see how effective they are at destroying exotic larvae and other creatures inadvertently transported in ship ballast tanks.