With a new invasive species discovered almost every six months in the Great Lakes, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis is calling on federal officials to close a loophole that has fueled the problem. An exemption to the federal Clean Water Act effectively allows ocean-going ships to dump ballast water in American’s inland waters, bringing aquatic invaders from zebra mussels to lampreys to the ruffe to the round goby. This has rapidly harmed the ecology of U.S. waters, especially the Great Lakes. Grannis encouraged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to force ships to clean out their ballast tanks before entering the nation’s waterways.
