LANSING, Mich. — A new ballast water reform bill in the state House would put Michigan more in line with laws in other Great Lakes states regarding ballast water discharges.

“Michigan’s current regulations have choked off the ability of agriculture and other industries to ship freight by water,” said Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Assoc. (MABA). “This puts Michigan at a serious disadvantage. Representative (Dan) Lauwers’ bill will level the playing field, bringing Michigan’s regulations in line with surrounding states and provinces.”

Lauwers, a Republican from Brockway Township, recently introduced the legislation, House Bill 4495. The bill, if passed and signed into law, would put Michigan’s rules more in line with other Great Lakes states and the U.S. Coast Guard. Michigan has been in the vanguard of safeguarding Great Lakes waters.

“Protecting Michigan’s Great Lakes is an important priority and one that we take very seriously,” Byrum said. “However, Michigan’s current law severely limits our opportunities for economic growth, while doing nothing to prevent ballast water from being discharged in other ports.

“Michigan can’t afford to sit idly by while other states and provinces snatch up these opportunities.”

Under the current situation, for example, an oceangoing vessel making its way through the Great Lakes could discharge ballast water in the Detroit River on the Canadian side under looser regulations, than it could if it were to discharge it on the Michigan side of the river. (Ballast water is taken into a boat’s tank to help balance it and make it more stable, and later discharged.)

But all Great Lakes states, as well as the federal government, are moving toward the treatment of ballast water, said Kent Wood, legislative affairs manager for Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC).

At one time, he said, there were no regulations at all regarding the treatment of ballast water in ships coming through the Great Lakes from the ocean. 

Then some governing authorities began requiring ships to exchange ballast water in the ocean.

The ships would exchange ballast water taken in in shallow depths in exchange for deep ocean water. Water from the deep ocean is less likely to have sea creatures in it, according to Wood.

Wood said there is still legislation out there that would allow oceangoing vessels to merely discharge ballast water in the ocean as a form of protection against invasive species.

“We remain opposed to anything that allows a ballast water exchange,” Wood said. “I think everybody would like to have a Great Lakes basin-wide solution to the problem. We are certainly far more comfortable with the Coast Guard’s position of having equipment installed to treat ballast water. Both the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have gone towards Michigan in this regard.

“That’s part of the problem. Everybody’s kind of gone their own way on this. But now everybody’s starting to get on board with a Great Lakes-wide standard.”

Lauwers’ bill would not eliminate the requirement that oceangoing vessels treat their ballast water chemically. Instead, it would only tweak the requirements to bring the Michigan rules more in line with the Coast Guard’s. To that extent, Wood said, the MUCC is in favor of Lauwers bill.

According to MABA, in recent years there have been no outbound agricultural shipments by water and very few inbound shipments.

Under Lauwers’ legislation, an inbound oceangoing ship would have three choices in Michigan: it could use Coast Guard or EPA rules regarding ballast water discharge; it could use tighter restrictions that were promulgated by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality; or it could refrain from dumping ballast water into Michigan waters.

“The Coast Guard and the states have approved methods that have been tested and have been shown to kill sea creatures every time,” Wood said. “We are pretty confident in Representative Lauwers’ bill and Senator (Mike, R-Arenac) Green’s current bill,” Senate Bill 266 – which is similar to Lauwers’ proposal.