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.
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