Bill would curb invasive marine life

Senate committee passes legislation that would force barges to disinfect water before unloading it in ports

By Denis Cuff
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

They hitchhike rides across the globe in hulls of big ships to invade and harm river and bay environments.

Clams, crabs and other alien aquatic creatures now are targets of California lawmakers who propose the toughest shipping rules in the nation to slow the invasion that has damaged the San Francisco Bay and Delta estuary.

A state Senate committee Tuesday approved a bill to require ships entering California ports to disinfect their ballast water to kill invasive species.

Shipping industry leaders are opposed, saying California shouldn't act alone but wait for international action.

But the author of the bill said it's time to rein in the species invasions that clog water pumps, harm native fish, undermine water supplies and threaten to undermine Delta levees with burrowing Chinese mitten crabs.

"We have waited too long. Look, there already are more than 200 exotic species in the Bay," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. "I want to have rigorous but obtainable standards."

Simitian amended the disinfection proposal this year into his Senate Bill 497. The measure survived its first test Tuesday by a 5-2 vote of the Senate Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.

The bill sets out a schedule for ships to meet increasingly tougher disinfection standards to kill eggs, larvae and plants in the ballast water before it is discharged into coastal waters.

Much like sewage plants, the ships can resort to chemical, ultraviolet light or heat for disinfection.

Ships commonly use ballast water to stay stable at sea and then purge the water after trips are over.

Under the bill, new, smaller vessels would have until 2009 to comply with the standards, and older large vessels would have until 2016.

By 2020, no discharged ballast water could have detectable levels of invasive creatures.

Shipping representatives contend the disaffection technology is experimental.

"We've heard that," Simitian said. "But if we don't put out the standards, we may not get the technology to meet them. It's like the chicken and the egg."

The bill calls for a scientific task force to convene at various deadlines to verify that practical technology was available to cleanse the water of eggs, larvae and tiny plants from other ports.

California already has a law requiring ships to unload ballast water at sea before entering ports.

However, that law has been ineffective, unwieldy and hard to enforce, said Andrew Cohen, a Berkeley marine scientist and member of a state task force that last year called for the new restrictions on ballast water.

Farming industry and water industry leaders supported the task force recommendations last year as a way to protect the environment and the security of California water supplies.

When invasive species damage Delta fish populations, water regulators may consider taking water away from California farms and cities to try to rescue the fish.

Scientists worry that an Asian clam has harmed fish in the Bay and Delta by multiplying rapidly and gobbling up microorganism at the bottom of the food chain.

Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@cctimes.com.

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