Reuters 8 Mar 11;
CHICAGO, March 8 (Reuters) - To keep new invasive species out of U.S. waters such as the Great Lakes, the United States must enact stricter rules on treating ship ballast water under a settlement reached on Tuesday with environmental groups.
Under the agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will settle on new rules by November that will go into effect in December 2013 to give shippers the chance to comply, conservation groups said.
"This settlement should prompt EPA to treat 'living pollution' as aggressively as it would an oil spill or toxic release," said Thom Cmar of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups involved in the settlement.
For now, ocean-going vessels entering U.S. waters such as the Great Lakes must first flush ballast tanks in a procedure commonly known as "swish and spit."
Environmental groups and some U.S. states complained swish and spit was inadequate, pointing to the dozens of invasive species that have entered the Great Lakes. More effective, and costly, techniques are available to cleanse ballast tanks of potential invaders.
"This agreement moves the EPA forward to more effective methods that will protect our Great Lakes and the jobs that depend upon them," Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a statement.
Michigan is leading a separate effort involving invasive Asian carp, voracious and prolific fish that authorities fear will swim into the Great Lakes via man-made waterways linked to the Mississippi River basin.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Eric Walsh)
