Aug 16, 2007 10:37 am US/Central
Judge Dismisses Suit Over Mich. Ballast Law
Traverse City, Mich. (AP) ―
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Shipping companies say they're making progress on technology to sterilize ballast tanks in ways that would kill foreign creatures but need more time. (File)
CBS
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging Michigan's new requirement that oceangoing ships treat ballast water for invasive species before discharging it at the state's ports.
A shipping coalition had sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit, claiming the law -- which took effect this year -- was unconstitutional. But Judge John Feikens on Wednesday granted the state's motion to dismiss the suit.
"We were successful in defending Michigan's law that protects the Great Lakes from even more of an invasion by these aquatic nuisance species," Rusty Hills, spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said Thursday.
Many of the 183 aquatic invasives in the lakes, including the notorious zebra and quagga mussels, are believed to have arrived in ballast tanks of ships from European or Asian ports.
Invasives compete with native species, disrupting the natural ecosystem, and cost the regional economy millions each year.
Shipping companies say they're making progress on technology to sterilize ballast tanks in ways that would kill foreign creatures but need more time. They argued the state law makes unreasonable demands and was an unconstitutional restraint on commerce.
They also said it made little sense for one state to impose a ballast policy when the Great Lakes network includes eight states and two Canadian provinces.
But supporters of the Michigan law said they were tired of waiting for the federal government to devise a ballast standard for U.S. waters. A new invasive species is believed to arrive in the Great Lakes on average every eight months.
"We know that once they get here they become difficult if not impossible to manage," said Robert McCann, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. "It's important that we, as the Great Lakes state, have the tools in front of us to protect the lakes from these invasive species."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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