A federal court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating the discharge of ballast water from ships. Rebecca Williams reports it’s the first time the agency has had to take responsibility for the problem:
Transcript
A federal court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to start
regulating the discharge of ballast water from ships. Rebecca Williams
reports it’s the first time the agency has had to take responsibility for
the problem:
Ballast water helps stabilize ships, but it can also carry foreign invasive
species that might harm local waterways.
For 30 years, the EPA has exempted ballast water from the Clean Water Act.
Now, the judge has given the EPA two years to come up with rules to limit
the discharge of ballast water.
Tim Eichenberg is with The Ocean Conservancy. The group is one of three
environmental groups that sued the EPA.
“Within two years, EPA should come up with something, some approach, that
could phase in a series of controls that could eliminate invasive species in
ballast water over a period of time.”
The shipping industry is concerned about having enough time to comply with
any new federal regulations.
Shippers already face some new laws at the state level. States such as
Michigan and California have passed their own laws restricting what ships
can do with their ballast in local waters.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.