Empty Ballast Tanks Still Carrying Critters

  • A scientist collects samples of ballast sediment. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The study by the University of Michigan and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at ships coming into the Great Lakes from the ocean. Nearly 80-percent of them declared “no ballast on board” and avoided inspections by the Coast Guard.


But several of those ships were tested by the researchers. They found that although the ballast water was pumped out, there were thousands of organisms left behind in the sediment in the bottom of the ships’ ballast. Then, when the ships unloaded at their first stop, they took on Great Lakes ballast water which stirred up the sediment.


And that made it possible for the biological contaminants to be pumped out at the next Great Lakes port.


The authors of the study warn that more restrictions must be placed on how the ships handle ballast water, or the Great Lakes will continue to be invaded by more invasive species such as the zebra mussel, round goby, and 180 other foreign aquatic species that have harmed the Lakes’ ecosystems.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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Court Rules Epa Must Regulate Ballast

  • 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.

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States to Crack Down on Ship Ballast Tanks?

  • Michigan Senator Patty Birkholz and state Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema proposing a "multi-state compact" to combat invasive species. (Photo courtesy of Senate Photowire)

A Michigan lawmaker is urging other states in the region to enter into a multi-state compact aimed at limiting the influx of invasive species into the Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:

Transcript

A Michigan lawmaker is urging other states in the region to enter into a
multi-state compact aimed at limiting the influx of invasive species into
the Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:


Federal regulations require ocean-going ships to exchange their ballast
water in the open ocean before they enter the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The
idea is to flush out any plants or animals that might have hitched a ride
from foreign ports. But Michigan state Senator Patty Birkholz says that
system isn’t working, because organisms can remain in the sludge at the
bottom of ships’ ballast tanks.


Birkholz is the co-chair of the Great Lakes legislative caucus. She wants
the eight states that surround the lakes to use their water pollution laws
to crack down on ships that release ballast water into the lakes.


“So it would require, first of all, them to get a permit to prove that
they’ve treated their ballast water, and then to treat their ballast water
in order to enter the Great Lakes basin.”


Birkholz hopes to have a multi-state compact in place by 2007.


For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.

Related Links

Gl States Speak Up on Ballast Water Lawsuit

A lawsuit brought by several environmental groups in California seeks to increase protection against invasive species. The groups hope to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ballast water discharge. Now, officials from the eight Great Lakes states are writing-in to support these groups in their lawsuit. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:

Transcript

A lawsuit brought by several environmental groups in California seeks
to increase protection against invasive species by forcing the
Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ballast water discharge.
Now, officials from the eight Great Lakes states are writing in to
support these groups in their lawsuit. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:


Researchers say ballast water from oceangoing ships is one of the
primary methods by which invasive species enter the Great Lakes.
State Attorney General Mike Cox wrote the amicus brief for Michigan.
He says under current EPA rules any ship that claims it doesn’t have
ballast can, in fact, issue discharge into the water.


“Now we know that right now and on any given day, about 85 to 90
percent of these ships claim that they don’t have any ballast on board.
That’s a claim that stretches credulity, quite simply because all ships
need ballast if they don’t have cargo.”


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that it
costs 45 million dollars a year just to control zebra mussels and sea
lampreys in the Great Lakes. Cox and the seven other Great Lakes
Attorneys General say the EPA must do more to protect the waters from
invasive species. The AGs have filed eight separate amicus briefs
supporting the case against the government. For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.

Farm Eases Transition for Refugees

People who come to the United States to escape persecution in their home country often face two major adjustments: Life in a new country, and life—for the first time—in a major city. A farm in Illinois takes part in a program designed to ease that transition. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:

Transcript

People who come to the United States to escape persecution in their
home country
often face two major adjustments: Life in a new country, and life—for
the first
time—in a major city. A farm in Illinois takes part in a program
designed to ease
that transition. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman
reports:


The demons of torture were threatening to rob Thaddee Essomba of his
life.
Essomba was a political activist in the West African nation of
Cameroon.
Someone evidently didn’t share Essomba’s views, and they wanted to make
him
pay.


Essomba fled Cameroon, leaving behind his home, his family, and
everything he
knew. He didn’t stop running until he arrived in Chicago.


Chicago was unlike anything Essomba had ever seen. Skyscrapers,
apartment
complexes and elevated trains were all new to him. Miles and miles of
concrete
and asphalt surrounded him. Adjusting to life in the city was almost
as difficult as
adjusting to life in a new country. All this, while trying to recover
from the
physical and psychological scars of torture.


Then, Thaddee Essomba discovered the farm.


(sound of farm fades in)


“For me to come here is really to go back to the source. Because when
you live in
the city, you know you get a little bit, you like to be in touch with
the nature. And
really I was missing that.”


(sound of goats)


The farm is called Angelic Organics. For the past decade it’s been
hosting visitors
from the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture in Chicago.
The Center
helps people fleeing persecution to recover and re-settle in the United
States.
People come to the center from all over the world. Many of them are
from rural
areas and aren’t used to living in a city.


Tom Spaulding is a former volunteer at the Kovler Center. He now works
at
Angelic Organics Farm. He says a visit to the farm can be a key stop
on the road
to recovery for torture victims.


“They’re living now in Chicago in a huge metropolitan area, and they’re
from rural
backgrounds, and some of them are farmers. And to be on a farm that’s
somewhat
like what they were used to back home—because it’s a small farm, it’s
diversified
vegetables and livestock. And so it’s, maybe it’s just because it
touches a lot of
things from peoples’…what was familiar from back home. And maybe that
in a
sense helps.”


For many of the people here, it’s a familiar setting. John Fallah
fled a civil war in
Liberia two years ago. He had to leave his family behind when he
escaped.
While he says he enjoys life in Chicago because he doesn’t feel
threatened
anymore, Fallah says the farm reminds him of home…


“I’m very much impressed of what I am seeing on this farm. There is no
difference from how we do the farming in Africa and here.”


(sound of chickens, goats)


This was Fallah’s first visit to the farm. Some of the Kovler Center’s
clients have
made the 80-mile trip from Chicago many times. Thaddee Essomba says
the farm
has become an important part of his life.


“When I came here you know I feel myself very relaxed. I enjoy myself,
you
know, my soul was really in touch with the nature, and I feel very
happy you
know and why sometime every year I try to come back to be, to feel that
sensation.”


For Essomba and the other survivors of torture, that sensation can be
an important
part of the healing process.


Essomba has even found a way to give back to the community surrounding
the
farm. He’s been teaching area kids about life in his native country.
It’s a land far
away, a place the kids have probably even never heard of. But as
Essomba has
learned, the nation of Cameroon has some very important things in
common with
the rural Midwest.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Related Links

Bugs Released to Munch on Invasive Plant

  • Purple loosestrife's looks are deceiving. It's a beautiful plant, but researchers say it has caused enormous damage in many parts of the country. An imported beetle has now shown significant signs of controlling the plant.

Purple loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands throughout the region, but the ability of the plant to spread and reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land managers. Over the years they have been working to control it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:

Transcript

Purple Loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped
stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom
in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands
throughout the region… but the ability of the plant to spread and
reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land
managers. Over the years, they have been working to control it.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way
they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:


Roger Sutherland has lived next to this wetland for more than 35
years.

He helped build a boardwalk over the soggy marsh so that he can
get a close-up view of some of his favorite plants:


“You see that plant with the big green flower? Yep. That… and
there’s more along here… that’s a pitcher plant. These are insect
eating plants and there’s another one called sundew here… here’s
some right in here…”

(sound under)


But like many wetlands throughout the country, this wetland has
been invaded by a plant originally found in Europe and Asia.


Purple Loosestrife was introduced as an ornamental plant.
It was a
beautiful addition to gardens, but once it took
hold in the environment,
it out-competed native plants.

Frogs, birds, and insects have relied on these native plants for
thousands of years. Purple Loosestrife is crowding out their habitat.


“We’re going to get a lot more shade with this loosestrife.. and so
these plants that are on these hummocks here…
these little insect
eating plants and so on… just can’t tolerate that shade, so we’ll
probably lose ’em unless I can keep it open here… and I am trying
to keep some of it open.”


The plant spreads quickly… that’s because one plant can produce
more than two million seeds that spread with the wind, like dust.

So when it moves into an area, it often takes over creating a thicket
of purple with a dense root system.

Land managers have seen populations of ducks, and turtles
disappear when loosestrife takes over…

And research has shown that the plant can reduce some frog and
salamander populations by as much as half.


So land managers wondered what to do to stop the spread of this
weed.

They initially tried to control the plant by digging it up… or by
applying herbicide to each plant.

Trying to kill the plants one by one is hard work… especially
considering how abundant purple loosestrife is.

But researchers have hope because of a bug.


(Sound of volunteers planting loosestrife)

Volunteers have gathered here in Ann Arbor, Michigan to plant
purple loosestrife.

They’re putting dormant loosestrife roots into potting containers and
adding fertilizer.


(more sound)


When the plants leaf out they’ll be covered with a fine mesh net and
become home to a leaf-eating beetle known as galerucella.

And galerucella loves to munch on purple loosestrife.

The volunteers are creating a nursery to raise more beetles.

Once they’ve got a bunch of beetles growing on the plant… they’ll
take it to a nearby wetland… and the bugs will be released into the
wild…


(sound up)


Linda Coughenour is a member of the Audubon Society.

Her group is working with state and local agencies to raise and
release these beetles.

She says tackling purple loosestrife invasions is a big task – and
governments need help from volunteers to deal with the problem:


“This is a serious problem throughout the entire Great Lakes
wetlands… it has migrated from the East Coast to the Midwest…
so, uh.. the problem’s just too big – so they thought up doing this
volunteer project and they’ve enlisted people all over the state… and
we’re just one of those.”


Volunteers have have been releasing their beetles into this wetland
for few years now and they’re beginning to see progress:


“It’s going really well… for a while we got off to a slow start, but for two
years now we’ve found evidence that the beetles are reproducing on their
own. We see little egg masses, we see larva that are starting to eat
the plants, we see adult beetles on the plants that have wintered
over. And that’s the thing, to get them to do it on their own.”


But releasing a foreign species into the wild is always a concern.

There are a number of examples of bugs released into the wild to
eliminate a pest, but ended up causing a problem themselves.

But before importing a bug that will prey on plants – the federal
government requires testing to make sure it won’t eat other plants.


The tests have been done.


And researchers feel that this is an extremely finicky bug…


Berndt Blossey is a specialist on invasive plants and ways to control
them.

He says the beetles were tested on native plants before they were
allowed to import the bugs:


“And it was shown there that they will not be able to feed and
develop on the plants. They will occasionally nibble on them, but
they will not be able to develop on them and they usually move off
after they have taken a bite, and they move off to other plants.”


The leaf beetle is not the only bug researchers are importing.

They’re also importing two other beetles known as “weevils.”

One that feeds on loosestrife flowers, and one that feeds on its root
system.

Blossey says more than one bug is needed to keep the plant from
growing back:


“Loosestrife will rebound from resources in the root stock. If you
have the root feeder in the system as well, these fluctuations will be
dampened, so loosestrife will not be allowed to comeback to higher
levels.”


(sound of wetland up)


People who admire the diversity of plants and animals in wetlands
like the idea of keeping purple loosestrife in check.


Roger Sutherland welcomes the bugs.

He believes they’ll help him keep this wetland open for the plants,
birds, and insects he’s come to know over the years:


“We know that the purple loosestrife will probably always be here.
But if we can bring it down to a manageable level, where you’re going
to have a pocket here and a pocket there… and you can kind of
maintain the integrity of this wetland system… then you can’t ask for
anything more than that.”


And researchers say that’s the goal.

To help these wetlands reach a balance… so that plants and animals
that have evolved to rely on these wetlands for thousands of years…
can continue to do so.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links

Threat Increasing From Invasive Fish

A spiny fish that can hunt in the dark has invaded Lake Michigan. The foreign fish is known as the Eurasian ruffe. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports, biologists fear the ruffe could harm the lake’s yellow perch population:

Transcript

A spiny fish that can hunt in the dark has invaded Lake Michigan. The foreign fish is known as the Eurasian ruffe. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports, biologists fear the ruffe could harm the lake’s yellow perch population:


Experts say the ruffe is originally from the Black and Caspian seas, and it’s an
efficient little machine. It lays enormous numbers of eggs and has no predators because of its spiny skin. Gary Lamberti is a professor in the department of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.


He says the ruffe are depleting the yellow perch’s food supply.


“The Eurasian ruffe are specialists on that food, that is they eat that food all the
time. And those are the worms and aquatic insects that are found at the bottom of
the lake. That’s what ruffe eat and that’s also what perch eat at a certain stage of
their lives. But ruffe do it all the time and they do it better.”


Lamberti says the yellow perch’s population is already declining in the Great Lakes,
probably due to competition from many invasive species.


The ruffe could be another blow to the commercial fishing industry, as yellow perch
are widely harvested for food and are a favorite among sportsmen.


The Eurasian ruffe probably migrated from Lake Superior, where they were first
discovered in the 80’s.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Stronger Invasive Law on the Horizon?

Congress is considering legislation that would create national standards for fighting invasive species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:

Transcript

Congress is considering legislation that would create national standards for fighting invasive species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:


Two Republican house members and a Democratic Senator are sponsoring the legislation. If the bill passes, it would create nationwide standards designed to keep foreign species from overrunning native plants and animals.


The legislation would extend the ballast water exchange standards currently in effect in the Great Lakes to the entire country. It would also improve screening protocols for importing plants and animals.


The bill also includes some funding to test new technologies. They include using chlorine, filters, and ultraviolet lights to kill off foreign species at some entry points to U.S. waterways.


A staff member for Michigan Senator Carl Levin says the bill is intended to be a first step toward developing international rules to stop the spread of invasive species. The lawmakers plan to introduce the bill when they return from their August recess.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.