Fresh, September 17, 2024: Controversial Policy Aims to Regulate Ballast Water, a Leading Cause of Invasive Species Spread, in Great Lakes Ports

September 17, 2024

Fresh is a biweekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Sign up for Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing, straight to your inbox, every other Tuesday.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Fresh Editor

This Week’s Watersheds

Fresh from the Great Lakes News Collaborative

• ‘Above the poison’: Mohawk land defenders refuse to surrender Barnhart Island to New York — The Narwhal
• Plan to transform Saginaw Bay coal plant site could become model for closed plants across Midwest — Michigan Public
• PFAS Roundup: Four Great Lakes states selected to test residents annually for environmental chemical exposure — Great Lakes Now
• Palisades nuclear relaunch gets more subsidies in Michigan — and more backlash — Bridge Michigan

Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.

Ballast Water Policy Hits Great Lakes Ports, Controversially

Ballast water — water that is taken in when cargo is loaded, transported great distances, and later released from freighters when unloading at ports — is estimated to be responsible for 40 percent of the non-native aquatic species introduced to the Great Lakes from transoceanic ships, WCMU Public Radio reports. These species, such as zebra mussels, cost the region an estimated $500 million each year for their damage to water quality, infrastructure, and native fish.

To address this issue, ships have been required to have ballast water management systems that ensure the water they release at ports is clean. But these regulations had only addressed freighters that come to the Great Lakes from outside the region — thousands of ships each year.

A regulatory blind spot has persisted, some say. The transport of ballast water still occurs on freighters which travel only within Great Lakes ports — ships called “lakers” — and this intra-lake movement is estimated to contribute to the spreading of 34 invasive species throughout the region. 

A new Canadian rule which partly took effect last week aims to address the ballast water of ships that don’t leave the Great Lakes. Starting on September 8, just six American “lakers” were required to have ballast management systems. But by 2030, 50 other vessels — which are older — must be up to code. Those frustrated by the policy and the cost of updating old ships have called it a “regulatory embargo and blockade,” WCMU reports. They also say that it benefits many of the Canadian vessels, which are newer and smaller. 

Meanwhile, researchers are fine-tuning ballast system technologies for the Great Lakes and studying the potential impacts of the new policy. “The only way to unpack the wild, wild west issue with the lakers is that we need to continue to fund that research,” Matt TenEyck, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, told WCMU.

In the News

The Cost of Contamination: At the time of writing, the Ohio Department of Health lists four active advisories for Lake Erie beaches — a familiar occurrence in recent years, as harmful algal blooms and elevated E. coli levels make the water unsafe for human health. Now, a new analysis has offered a glimpse into the economic impacts of these closures. According to Brent Sohngen, an environmental economic professor at Ohio State University, beach closures in 2019 due to water quality warnings resulted in a 20 percent reduction of visitors and a loss of $22 million in tourism spending, WOUB Public Media reports.

State of the St. Lawrence: A new analysis, released jointly by the Canadian and Quebec governments, shows that the health of the St. Lawrence River “remains fragile,” CTV News reports. Of particular concern is the warming of the river’s seabed, which, in 2022, at depths greater than 300 yards, exceeded 44 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time on record. This warming is contributing to hypoxia – the loss of oxygen in the waters — a significant danger for fish and other aquatic organisms.

Looking Ahead

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.