Defend the Clean Water Act and States' Rights to Protect Their Waters Against Invasive Species and Other Pollution!

The Senate Commerce Committee has been working on the Ballast Water Management Act (Senate Bill 1578). The Clean Water Network sent an alert this week on some of the troubling provisions of the S.1578. The bill would name the Coast Guard as the sole federal authority to continue to administer a ballast water program without the strong enforcement, reporting, funding, and water quality monitoring requirements of the Clean Water Act.

S. 1578 would also eliminate states’ abilities to develop effective programs that prevent ballast water discharges from harming local water bodies. A significant and potentially more serious impact would be the new precedent set for other pollutant dischargers to seek their own exemptions from the Clean Water Act. The Committee had a markup of the bill scheduled in late July. At that markup, Chairman Daniel Inouye (HI) pulled the bill after Senator Barbara Boxer (Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee) expressed concern over language in the bill, which would preempt state regulation as well as the Clean Water Act. Since then, staff members of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee have been meeting to try to resolve the issues before voting on the bill. We hope these discussions are productive, and we would like to see the bill strengthened and passed. Areas where the bill should be strengthened include:

• Application of Treatment Technology. Right now S. 1578’s final deadline for ships to install treatment technology is 2015. There are good indications, however, that the bill will be amended and the deadline moved up to 2012, although it isn’t yet confirmed.
• Feasibility Review. S. 1578 requires ships to install the best treatment technology available by the bill’s deadlines, even if it doesn’t meet the tough treatment standards that are spelled out. Although headed in the right direction, this provision needs to be amended to ensure that a firm deadline is established so ships ultimately meet the toughest standards outlined in the bill.
• Preemption. Legislation must not prevent states from taking action to protect their waters from invasive species or preempt the Clean Water Act. A national standard is necessary. However, states are best positioned to recognize those areas where federal regulations are inadequate or that may need special attention. While implementation of a strong national standard will alleviate the need for states to take further action, states must also be allowed to provide greater protections for their water.