Protecting Lake Superior from Invasive Species: Ballast Water Permit

In August of 2007, MCEA took the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to court, arguing the agency must begin regulating ballast water discharged by ships traveling on Lake Superior to protect the lake from the threat of invasive species in general, and from viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, in particular. VHS is a deadly, invasive fish virus that had reached all Great Lakes except Superior when MCEA began its battle. By early 2010, VHS had reached Superior.

Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin agreed and ordered the agency to treat ballast discharge as water pollution. By October 1, 2008, she ruled, all ships carrying ballast water in Minnesota waters must have MPCA-issues permits before discharging it.

In late September, the Pollution Control Agency’s citizen board unanimously approved a general permit for ballast water discharges.  While MCEA was pleased the agency took action on ballast water, it found the terms of the permit too lax and the implementation timeline too slow to adequately address the threats. VHS and other invasive species demand a quicker response and more stringent standards than required by the general permit, which says ships must treat ballast water before discharging it by 2016. Additionally, the treatment standard allows hundreds of millions of fish-sized organisms, tens of billions of smaller organisms, and an unlimited number of virus-sized organisms to be discharged, live, into Lake Superior each year, which will not preserve Lake Superior’s high water quality from degradation by invasive species.

MCEA asked the state Court of Appeals to reject the discharge permit shortly after the agency approved it. Lake Superior’s water quality is exceptionally good and the lake is considered an “outstanding resource value water” under state law, requiring the agency to protect it from deteriorating. MCEA doesn’t believe the new rules meet that requirement’s high threshold.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Pollution Control Agency and its permit system in 2009.

Learn More
Read Judge Gearin's order to the MPCA to begin regulating ballast water.

Read MCEA's brief appealing MPCA's ballast water permit.

Read the Minnesota Court of Appeals decision in ballast water permit case

The spread of VHS through the Great Lakes, 2003 - 2007. (map)