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The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rejected a challenge to the statute filed by nine shipping companies and associations. They claimed the measure interferes with interstate commerce and is pre-empted by federal law.
Michigan requires saltwater ships to obtain a Department of Environmental Quality permit before calling at the state’s ports. It certifies they either will not discharge ballast water or have onboard technology to kill live organisms in the water before it is dumped.
Legislators enacted the law in 2005, frustrated with what they considered an inadequate federal response to the exotic species that have caused billions of dollars in damage to the Great Lakes economy.
“We’re pleased that the court has upheld Michigan’s contention that there is more that can be done to keep the invasives out,” said Robert McCann, spokesman for the DEQ. “This is a big win for the Great Lakes.”
Messages seeking comment were left with shipping industry representatives.
At least 185 invasives have been detected in the lakes, most of which are believed to have arrived in ship ballast. They disrupt the ecosystem’s natural balance by competing with native species for food and habitat.
“The millions of people who depend on the Great Lakes deserve a solution to this serious problem to protect our drinking water, economy and way of life,” said Marc Smith, state policy director for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor.
Ships fill their ballast tanks to improve stability in rough seas when traveling with little or no cargo. They dump the water — and whatever life forms it carries — after arriving in port to take on freight.
U.S. and Canadian regulations have long required oceangoing vessels to dump ballast water at sea and fill their tanks with salt water before entering the Great Lakes. More recently, they have ordered ships to rinse tanks at sea even if they’re carrying no ballast, in order to kill freshwater creatures lurking in residues.
Environmentalists say those measures are helpful but inadequate. They contend sterilizing water before release is the only way to ensure no live invader will escape.
Michigan is the only Great Lakes state with its own ballast law. The DEQ has issued more than 100 permits to ships that promised not to discharge ballast in the state’s waters.
In 2007, U.S. District Judge John Feikens in Detroit rejected the shipping industry’s lawsuit seeking to nullify the law.
Upholding Feikiens’ ruling Friday, a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel said some of the plaintiffs had no standing to sue while the others’ arguments were invalid.
“Michigan, for undisputedly legitimate reasons, has enacted legislation of a type expressly contemplated by Congress,” the panel said. “We have no basis to disrupt the result of those democratic processes.”
In a separate development, a Wisconsin official said Friday the state would conduct a hearing on a proposed system for regulating ballast water discharges at its ports, which has been challenged by the National Wildlife Federation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue a Clean Water Act permit next month that simply would order ships to meet existing requirements for cleaning out ballast tanks. But the Great Lakes states are considering setting tougher standards under the act.
Most are leaning toward adopting International Maritime Organization standards that limit the number of live organisms in discharged water. Wisconsin in October formally proposed doing so.
Although tougher than what EPA wants, Wisconsin’s policy still would allow invasives to enter the lakes, the wildlife federation’s Smith said. He urged the Great Lakes states to follow the lead of New York, which is developing a standard 1,000 times more stringent than the international one.
Wisconsin will hold a hearing on the issue early next year but considers the IMO standard the strongest that can be achieved with existing technology, said Todd Ambs, water division administrator for the Department of Natural Resources.
“We’d like to have stronger standards but this is about what we can get in place right now,” Ambs said. Shippers have complained the Wisconsin standards are too tough, he added.
