The EPA is being called to put regulations on ballast water discharges. (Photo courtesy of the USGS)
Ballast water discharges from ocean freighters must be regulated by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That’s the ruling of a California judge.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:
Transcript
Ballast water discharges from ocean freighters must be regulated by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. That’s the ruling of a California judge. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Sarah Hulett reports:
The ruling calls on the EPA to repeal a decades-old exemption for ballast water discharges from the
federal Clean Water Act. Discharges from ships’ ballast tanks have dumped foreign plants and
animals into coastal waters and the Great Lakes. The organisms have wreaked environmental and
economic havoc on native ecosystems.
Jordan Lubetkin is with the National Wildlife Federation.
“By this ruling, ballast water discharge is regulated as a biological pollutant. Ballast water is
treated like a discharge from an industrial facility, or a wastewater treatment facility, and in
this regard it’s no different.”
An EPA spokesman says the agency is reviewing the decision, and its options. The judge has ordered
an April 15th conference for the EPA and the environmental groups that sued to discuss how to move
forward.
For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.