[100111.EN.SEA] US Eco Law Stands To Close Great Lakes To World Shipping Next Year

GLOBAL maritime interests are expressing concern that a New York state environmental regulation on ballast water purity could close the Great Lakes to world shipping. "We'll have to stop doing business in New York," said Mark Barker, president of Interlake Steamship Co, whose nine ships carry cargo, principally grain, to New York ports, according to Crain's Cleveland Business. "That [regulation] will affect my customers. They probably won't be able to get low-cost marine transportation." Mr Barker was referring to a rule promulgated by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation that sets what many in the maritime industry consider an impossibly high standard for the purity of the ballast water carried by ships. The goal of the regulation is to curtail the introduction of harmful non-native fish and other organisms that supposedly disrupt the ecological balance. Interlake's ships stay in the Great Lakes, but enforcement of the regulation would prevent passage in and out of the Great Lakes by any ship that doesn't meet the standard, labour leaders, port directors and shippers say. Failure to meet the standard would prevent ships from entering New York waters. That includes the St Lawrence Seaway locks that ocean-going vessels must transit in and out. Mr Barker said he is talking now to customers because they need considerable lead time if they must find alternative shipping arrangements at the beginning of 2012, when the regulation would take effect. Recent amendments to the federal Clean Water Act allowed states to apply standards more stringent than the federal government imposes. The New York rule says that, beginning January 1, 2012, no ship can get a permit to travel through New York waters without onboard ballast water treatment technology that eliminates the discharge of invasive species.

Source : HKSG, 08.01.11.