WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and SportsNew water regulations aim to stop invasive species
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MADISON (WKOW) -- New ballast water regulations on Great Lakes vessels will take effect in February 2010, the state announced Thursday.
Under the new rules, ships will not be allowed to discharge ballast tank sediment and seawater into the Great Lakes. Instead, they will have to find other means to handle those substances.
The rules are designed to stop the spread of an invasive water species currently affecting the lakes.
The Department of Natural Resources will decide whether current commercial treatment technology is available to allow ships that go on the ocean to meet the limits on organisms in the discharged water.
If it is available, the ships must then meet limits 100 times more restrictive than the standards used by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). If the technology is not available, the state's standards will remain at the level of the IMO.
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