States want regulations on ballast

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Michigan and five other Great Lakes states will ask a federal court today to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate biological invaders dumped in the lakes by oceangoing ships.

Ballast water releases have introduced dozens of exotic species over the past several decades into the lakes and the oceans' coastal waters. In the Great Lakes, the result has been biological chaos, with new creatures virtually wiping out many native species and hurtling the ecosystem into a tailspin.

A coalition of West Coast environmental groups sued the EPA in 2002, seeking a judgment declaring the ballast water a biological pollutant subject to federal Clean Water Act laws. If the groups prevail, the EPA would need to issue permits and establish rules for ballast water as it does for chemicals discharged by factories and wastewater-treatment plants.

In a joint legal brief to be filed today, the states of New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan will side with the environmental groups.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has opted not to join a separate legal action by several Great Lakes states challenging the U.S. Coast Guard's ability to enforce existing ballast water rules.