HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE PONDERS NATIONAL BALLAST WATER EXCHANGE PROGRAM

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE PONDERS NATIONAL BALLAST WATER EXCHANGE PROGRAM    A House subcommittee Wednesday focused on implementing legislation that would call for a national ballast water exchange program.
   Invasions of non-indigenous aquatic species in U.S. waters occur when organisms from foreign vessels are expelled by their host vessel’s expel ballast water into'a domestic port’s waters.
   U.S. Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., chairman of the House subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, said these nuisance species can displace native species, causing serious damage to marine ecosystems.
   Duncan and other lawmakers called for enacting a national law penalizing carriers who do not comply with a national ballast water management program to curb such a problem.
   As shipping times become shorter and vessels become faster, more of these species are transported and are able to survive the journey to thrive in U.S. waters, Duncan said.
   “It’s sort of a no-brainer, to me, that we are going to move to mandatory,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
   The ranking member of the subcommittee, DeFazio said that National Invasive Species Act of 1996, only calls for carriers to voluntarily implement ballast water exchange. Expanding NISA to national level would provide increased assurance that carriers would comply, he said.
      Most carriers have adapted such practices, he said. “And then, there are the bad actors. We need to send a message to the bad actors that they are going to comply with everyone else.”
   Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., who also called for an expanded NISA, said several states have their own laws to enforce ballast water exchange programs, but the lack of uniformity maks those state laws ineffective.
   Capt. Michael Brown, chief of the Coast Guard’s Office ofOperating and Environmental Standards, said, 'the problem is both national and international. On a global level, the Coast Guard is involved in developing international standards to curb the international spread of such species through the International Maritime Organization’s Environmental Protection Committee. Some of this research has provided what appear to be viable solutions, but none are cure-alls to the problem, he added.