GLIN==> Groups Challenge Wisconsin to Gain Stronger Protections against Invasive Species

National Wildlife Federation – Wisconsin Wildlife Federation
 
Groups Challenge Wisconsin to Gain Stronger Protections against
Invasive Species
 
Legal Action Shows Wisconsin’s New Permit Won’t Keep New Invasive
Species from Entering the Great Lakes through Ballast Water Discharges
from Foreign Ships
 
ANN ARBOR, MI (JAN. 15, 2010) — The National Wildlife Federation and
Wisconsin Wildlife Federation filed a legal challenge today that claims
the state of Wisconsin’s new ballast water discharge permit violates
state law and won’t prevent freighters from importing more invasive
species, like zebra mussels, into the Great Lakes.
 
“Compliance with the Wisconsin ballast water discharge standards would
not prevent invasive species from entering Wisconsin waters,” said Neil
Kagan, senior attorney at the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes
Regional Center. “Wisconsin officials have said prevention is the best
way to protect the Great Lakes from new invasive species, but the
state’s ballast water discharge standards won’t prevent new
invasions. The state’s failure to follow its own laws to protect water
quality is the basis of our lawsuit.”
 
Wisconsin released ballast water discharge standards in a permit in
November. The permit, which is set to take effect February 1, would
require ocean freighters to treat ballast water, but the discharge
standards are too weak to be effective.
 
The final permit is weaker than the draft version and contains a
loophole that would allow ships to fall back to the weakest discharge
standards. The permit runs counter to a state law that prohibits
degradation of Wisconsin’s waters, according to officials at the
National Wildlife Federation and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.
 
“Wisconsin’s ballast water discharge permit is a mirage — it looks good
from a distance but a close examination reveals serious flaws,” said
George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.
“The permit creates an illusion that the state is getting tough on
ballast water discharges.”
 
Ballast water discharges by ocean freighters are the leading source of
invasive species in the Great Lakes. Since the opening of the St.
Lawrence Seaway in 1959, ocean ships have imported 57 invaders to the
Great Lakes, according to government data. That army of invaders — which
includes zebra mussels, quagga mussels and round gobies — have plunged
the lakes into a state of biological chaos that costs people,
businesses, utilities and cities at least $200 million per year,
according to Notre Dame University researchers. 
 
The federal government has not enacted ballast water discharge
standards despite numerous agencies working on the problem for the past
two decades. The U.S. Coast Guard recently proposed national ballast
water treatment standards.
 
Wisconsin and other states began developing ballast water discharge
standards after the federal government failed to address the problem
nationally. California and New York have passed the nation’s toughest
ballast water regulations. 
 
An earlier version of Wisconsin’s discharge standard was as stringent
as those states’ standards. Wisconsin should restore the level of
protections put in place by  those states, said Marc Smith, state policy
manager at the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional
Center.
 
“Absent federal action to confront the urgent threat of invasive
species, Wisconsin and other states need to do all they can to keep
harmful invaders out of the Great Lakes,” Smith said. “Wisconsin’s
ballast water discharge standards aren’t tough enough — the door will
remain open for new invasive species to colonize and disrupt the world’s
largest source of surface freshwater.” 
 
Wisconsin’s permit would not make ballast water discharge standards
applicable to lake freighters.
 
Wisconsin -- along with the Great Lakes states of Indiana, Minnesota,
New York, Ohio and the province of Ontario -- recently supported the
state of Michigan’s lawsuit against the state of Illinois to stop the
invasive Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan and the other Great
Lakes.
 
“Wisconsin’s willingness to step up to stop the Asian carp from
entering the Great Lakes needs to be matched by action that protects its
own waters from the ongoing influx of invasive species brought into the
lakes through ballast water,” said Smith.
 
Preventing new invasive species introductions is one of the tenets of
restoring the Great Lakes. The U.S. Congress and President Obama
recently approved $475 million to restore the lakes.
 
“We can’t fully restore the Great Lakes until we put an end to this
crisis of invasive species entering the lakes,” Smith said.   
 
For more information: www.nwf.org/greatlakes 
 
The National Wildlife Federation is America's largest conservation
organization inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's
future.
 
The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation is the state’s largest conservation
organization, comprised of 168 hunting, fishing, trapping and forestry
related organizations that have over 100,000 members. The Wildlife
Federation, founded in 1949, is dedicated to conservation education and
the advancement of sound conservation policies.
 
For Immediate Release:
January 15, 2010
 
Contact: 
Marc Smith, National Wildlife Federation, 734-255-5413
George Meyer, Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, 608-516-5545
Jordan Lubetkin, National Wildlife Federation, 734-887-7109
 
 
Jordan Lubetkin - Senior Regional Communications Manager
National Wildlife Federation
Great Lakes Regional Center
213 W. Liberty St., Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1398
www.nwf.org/greatlakes 
www.healthylakes.org ( http://www.healthylakes.org/ )

Phone: (734) 887-7109 
Cell: (734) 904-1589

Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.
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