A bill that would have set a national standard for ballast water discharge in the US has been blocked in the Senate due to a lack of votes. The measure would have eliminated Clean Water Act protections in regards to discharge and would have made the water ballast standard weaker by handing the issue from Environmental Protection Agency to the US Coast Guard. Environmentalists opposed the bill on concern it would have allowed the introduction of invasive foreign species into the Great Lakes.
A bill that would have set a national standard for ballast water discharge in the US has been blocked in the Senate due to a lack of votes. The measure would have eliminated the Clean Water Act protections in regards to discharge and would have made the water ballast standard weaker by handing the issue from Environmental Protection Agency to the US Coast Guard. Environmentalists opposed the bill on concern it would have allowed the introduction of invasive foreign species into the Great Lakes.