Rep. Slaughter introduces an amendment to fight invasive species

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to offer an amendment with my distinguished colleague from Michigan, Mr. Dingell, which would remove a controversial measure that has been inserted into the underlying Coast Guard re-authorization.

The measure forces states to adopt a weak international ballast water standard, as a ceiling for regulatory efforts. In doing so, it preempts the right of states to respond to emerging invasive species and provides no incentive for future innovation and critical ballast water technology. Each minute, 40,000 gallons of ballast water containing thousands and millions of foreign bacteria and plants and animals
are discharged into US waters. That's 21 billion gallons of ballast water annually.

Once introduced, invasive species, such as the Asian Carp, are difficult to control and often impossible to eradicate.

Having no natural predators, aquatic invasive species easily feed on the native fish and other wildlife. They foul beaches, degrade fisheries, clog water intake pipes and other infrastructure, they disrupt the food chain, and contaminate our drinking water.

We spend more than $1 billion a year simply trying to get rid of zebra mussels which to date we'll have spent $5 billion trying to eradicate and have not come close.

Ballast water is a serious matter with far-reaching implications for this nation. We spend billions of taxpayer dollars every year to combat and contain invasive species brought into our water by foreign shipping vessels. Many, and almost all around the Great Lakes, of our nation's communities rely on these bodies of water for recreation, to drink, as well as their livelihood. The Great Lakes, which face significant challenges from invasive species, contain 20% of the fresh water on the planet.

And I think those of us on both sides of the aisle who live adjacent to those lakes have always felt an obligation to try to protect that. And we must also remember that those are international waters and our Canadian friends also have a say here. Unfortunately the ballast water provisions in this measure protect the foreign shipping magnates rather than the Great Lakes and the people who live there.

The Dingell-Slaughter amendment strikes Title 7 from this measure, which would remove the damaging language. This amendment will allow us to pass the important Coast Guard re-authorization while giving Congress the opportunity to come to a responsible and reasonable agreement with respect to

ballast water standards. I urge my colleagues to support the Dingell-Slaughter amendment. Mr. chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• ballast water
• great lakes
• invasive species