US ballast water bill may be voted on next week

Legislation requiring treatment of ballast water on ships in the Great Lakes may reach a vote in Congress next week, but some of the bill’s details remain a mystery. Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., plans to bring an annual Coast Guard funding bill, which contains the ballast provisions, next week and has received a go-ahead from the House leadership, a spokeswoman said. If that happens, the bill’s consideration would break months of delay brought on by unrelated disputes about the bill and Oberstar’s recent surgery that prevented him from working on it.

Environmental groups in the Great Lakes region have been pushing for stronger restrictions on ballast, a source of many invasive species in the lakes and St. Lawrence River. Among those is Save the River, Clayton.

Oberstar has backed measures to require treatment systems on ocean ships, which also have support from the shipping industry. Ships are already required to wash out tanks with salt water, which kills freshwater organisms, but lawmakers are eyeing more effective methods.

Supporters of tighter restrictions worry that Congress will give ship operators loopholes by establishing loose deadlines that could be extended if ship companies contend that on-board treatment is not technologically feasible, said Jennifer Nalbone, who works on the issue for Great Lakes United.

“We didn’t want any kind of rolling deadlines,” Nalbone said. In addition, Nalbone said, states should be allowed to keep their own ballast-related laws if they are tougher than the federal law. And states should be allowed to sue the federal government if it does not enforce the law.