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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Environment - Recent stories about the Great Lakes

"Invasive species rules to be revised" is the headline to this story published last weekend in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Some quotes:

The U.S. Coast Guard says it must find new ways to keep foreign species out of the Great Lakes, conceding that its regulation of transoceanic ships since 1993 hasn't done the job.

In a little-noticed announcement in the Federal Register this month, the Coast Guard confirmed what scientists have been documenting for years: Invasive species can be carried into the Great Lakes in the residual water and mud at the bottom of ships' ballast water tanks. The extent of the problem was detailed in a series of Star Tribune reports last June.

Ballast tanks are used to balance and stabilize ships. They are emptied and refilled depending upon how much cargo a ship is carrying. Since 1993 the Coast Guard has required ships from foreign ports to discharge ballast water in mid-ocean and to replace it with salt water before entering the St. Lawrence Seaway. The intent is to remove or kill freshwater hitchhikers that might otherwise be carried into the Great Lakes, where they could proliferate and damage natural species.

But the regulations have a gaping loophole. Ships with empty tanks -- which represent about 80 percent of the incoming vessels -- have been exempt from federal inspections.

Scientists have found eggs, spores and other living things in the residual water and muck in the bottom of those uninspected tanks. The foreign species have been dumped into Great Lakes ports when ships take on and release ballast water, scientists say. * * *

At least 179 foreign species have entered the Great Lakes since the 1800s. About 40 percent arrived since 1959, mostly in ballast tanks. The invaders include zebra mussels and such fish as round gobies and Eurasian ruffe, which displace or out-eat native fish and mussels. * * *

Scientists who study the lakes recently reported that the invading species are being discovered at a faster pace in the past decade. Their article, published in the October issue of BioScience, predicted that, without better controls, invaders will keep coming and spread in the Great Lakes "with an associated loss of native biodiversity and an increase in unpredicted ecological disruptions."

Among the species discovered since the 1993 regulations is the fishhook water flea, which displaces native fish food. Scientists have warned that other species from European and Asian ports could invade the lakes, including the killer shrimp, an inchlong feeding machine that devours food needed by fish.

Great Lakes states sue. Last July, attorneys general from seven Great Lakes states, including Minnesota, sued the Coast Guard over the problem. They argued that species from foreign ports must be stopped because they disrupt the ecology and cause billions of dollars in damage to industries, sport fisheries and public utilities. They said that the Coast Guard's exemption for most transoceanic ships must end.

See this ILB entry from July 17, 2005 discussing the Great Lake states' attorneys general suit. Indiana was not among the seven states participating. The U.S. Coast Guard Federal Register notice referenced in the story is available here.

An AP story yesterday in the Indianapolis Star and other papers, titled "Erosion lowers water levels on Great Lakes, report says," began"

TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. -- Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are losing vast amounts of water because of erosion from a commercial navigation channel at the bottom of the St. Clair River, says a report issued Monday.

It was widely known that the two geologically connected lakes lost water when the channel was dug in 1962, boosting the flow south toward Lake Erie. But previously undetected erosion has made the channel more than 60 feet deep in some places _ twice as deep as needed for shipping, the report said.

That has contributed to a decline of 8 to 13 inches in the Huron-Michigan water level in the past three decades, the report said, and it continues a trend dating to around 1860, when the first channels were dredged on the St. Clair river.

Since then, levels on the two lakes have fallen a combined 32 inches _ enough water to fill Lake St. Clair 28 times _ and the problem only will worsen unless it's corrected, the report said.

Access the 142-page report, "REGIME CHANGE (MAN MADE INTERVENTION) AND ONGOING EROSION IN THE ST. CLAIR RIVER AND IMPACTS ON LAKE MICHIGAN-HURON LAKE LEVELS," here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 25, 2005 12:02 PM
Posted to Environment