The Bond Act provides funding to restore brownfields, ensure safe drinking water, clean up air and water resources, and support local solid waste management efforts. We were the first to test practical approaches to preventing biological pollution. This project will help the world create safe ways to transport goods. It is one of the highest leverage investments we can make. The project will determine the threats that these vessels pose to the Great Lakes and examine the effectiveness of ballast water management practices on short circuiting this pathway for biological invasions.
Ballast water stabilizes ships, and is discharged at ports of call and en route.
The U.S. receives more than 79 million metric tons of ballast water from overseas each year. The water can carry invasive species, ranging from microorganisms to plants and animals, into the Great Lakes where they threaten native species. The zebra mussel and the lamprey eel are among the species believed to have arrived in the Great Lakes in ballast water or attached to the hulls of ships. A shipping company that specializes in moving cargo between the West Coast and Hawaii was charged today with lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about making discharges of wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, the Justice Department announced. Half of the fines will be used to finance environmental projects and initiatives in California and Washington.