Stockton Standing Up -

You CAN make a difference	Please support us. Click here to donate.

Ballast water ruling could aid Delta

Published in the Stockton Record on 04/01/05

Ballast water ruling could aid Delta

By Dana Nichols
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, April 1, 2005

SACRAMENTO -- A federal judge has ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must consider the invasive species of plants and animals in ships' ballast water as pollutants.

Judge Susan Illston of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California said in judgement signed Wednesday that the EPA "acted in excess of its statutory authority" when EPA officials decided not to regulate the water that ships pump from their tanks before taking on new cargo.

The lawsuit was the culmination of a legal battle that has been going since the 1990s when Stockton-based DeltaKeeper and other environmental groups began urging state and federal authorities to stop the rising tide of foreign clams, crabs, plankton and other species invading U.S. waters.

Already, new species of plants and animals such as Asian clams and mitten crabs have damaged levees and pumps in the Delta, changing the food chain and contributing to the decline of native species.

"The great hovering threat has always been the zebra mussel," said DeltaKeeper's Bill Jennings. "If that ever got established in this estuary it would require billions of dollars to control as it has in the Great Lakes."

Zebra mussels arrived in the Great Lakes from Europe. The tiny shellfish cluster by the thousands in intake pipes, eventually closing the flow of water through the pipes.

"You can imagine what that would do to agricultural irrigation in this estuary," Jennings said.

Even without the mussel, the Delta is considered one of the world's most-invaded ecosystems with 250 nonnative species, many of which could have been introduced through ballast water.

Alexis Strauss, water director for the western region of the EPA, said Thursday that she did not know how top officials in Washington will respond to the ruling.

But Strauss said it may simply mean that EPA will have to start regulating ship ballast water.

"I've been worried greatly in the simple uptick in the sheer number of exotic species that we've been dealing with," she said. "Are we ever going to be able to keep up and not have this problem overwhelm us as it does in the Great Lakes?"

The rate of new species arriving in ports around the world has accelerated in recent years with increased world trade.

Strauss said options for preventing ballast pollution could include requiring ships to exchange the water out at sea or building treatment facilities in ports to handle the water so it doesn't get dumped into the Delta.

She said none of the major ports on the West Coast have facilities to treat ballast water.

"It is not technically so difficult. But ports are typically pretty pressed for space," she said.

Port of Stockton Director Richard Aschieris was in a meeting and could not be reached for comment.

The Port of Stockton each year is visited by ships carrying millions of tons of cargo. Port operations directly and indirectly employ about 4,000 people.

To reach reporter Dana Nichols, phone (209) 546-8295 or e-mail dnichols@recordnet.com

Use your browser BACK button to return, or click on a link below.