April 2008

U.S. Water News Online

DULUTH, Minn. -- Minnesota will move ahead with plans to regulate ballast water discharges from Great Lakes ships, even if the federal government doesn't act, the state's top environmental official says.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency unveiled a rough draft of proposed regulations that would require ships to treat ballast water before it's released into Minnesota waters.

Shipping industry officials oppose the state's plan, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has questioned the state's jurisdiction to impose regulations on shipping.

But at a meeting in Duluth, agency Commissioner Brad Moore said it's "preposterous" to suggest that the state does not have the legal and moral authority to act now to keep exotic species — some of which hitchhike in ballast water — out of Lake Superior and Minnesota ports.

Moore said the state's first choice would be a single, federal law regulating ballast discharges. But he said his agency will move forward with a state plan until state officials are satisfied Minnesota waters are protected.

"No one yet has figured out the precise way to do this. But we simply need to move forward on it," Moore said.

Minnesota officials contend they are following a 2006 federal court order requiring governments to enforce Clean Water Act regulations for ships starting Oct. 1. The court ordered regulators to consider ballast water the same as industrial pollution.