Top scientists taking aim at Great Lakes' invasive species

[GLF]

The problem of invasive species flooding into the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway is now drawing the attention of some of America's top scientific minds.

The National Academy of Sciences today will convene a committee of transportation, economic and environmental experts to explore ways to stanch the flow of unwanted creatures into the world's largest freshwater system while enhancing global trade in the region. The meeting is part of what could be a two-year project to solve the seaway's invasive species woes.

The Great Lakes are home to at least 180 foreign species, and a new one is discovered, on average, every 6 1/2 months. The overwhelming majority of the invaders since the 1970s, including the quagga mussel, zebra mussel and round goby, made their way into the lakes in the belly of overseas freighters carrying contaminated ballast water.

Ballast water, used to stabilize a ship on the high seas, is often taken on at one port and dumped at another.

The shipping industry acknowledges the problem, and the race is on to develop a technology that will decontaminate ships' ballast water tanks.

Conservation groups are encouraged by that prospect, but they are getting anxious. They note that while the research goes on, the gates to the lakes remain essentially wide open to invasive species. And they are beginning to question the overseas shipping industry's economic value to the region, given the ecological problems it is causing.

That tension could take center stage during the two days of presentations by various experts called to Washington, D.C., to advise the academy's committee.

Two such experts are John Taylor and James Roach, who recently released a study that pegged the transportation savings tied to overseas shipping in the Great Lakes at about $55 million a year, a paltry sum compared with the economic and environmental costs associated with invasive species.

One estimate, for example, put the total cost of just the pipe-clogging zebra mussel to regional industry at about $2 billion over the past two decades.

Taylor and Roach reached their estimate by tracking what overseas cargo moves on the seaway and projecting the cost of moving that material to the region by rail, truck or Mississippi River barge.

Shipping advocates contend that their study, funded by the Joyce Foundation of Chicago, was an oversimplified assessment of a complex system.

The academy's Jill Wilson said Taylor and Roach were invited to make a presentation precisely because their study is so controversial.

"Obviously, it (the study) presents some information that could be useful for the committee in assessing future options, but considering how much controversy it has generated, it's important for the committee to get a feel for how reliable the numbers are," said Wilson.

Some members of the shipping industry are already suspicious of this new academy effort, which is funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund, a non-profit corporation established by the Great Lakes states governors to finance projects to improve the region's environmental health.

Steve Fisher, executive director of the American Great Lakes Ports Association, said now is the time to press on with ballast treatment research, instead of spending $850,000 to take a sweeping look at the way the seaway operates.

"These dollars could probably be better put to use in helping join with all the others who are looking at shipboard treatment systems, to help find the technology that needs to be developed to solve this problem," said Fisher, who will attend the meeting as a representative of the shipping industry.

University of Notre Dame professor and invasive-species expert David Lodge agrees that treating ballast is the ultimate solution, but he said the problem has been making headlines for nearly 20 years and no remedy is yet in sight. That, he said, might mean taking a hard look at locking out overseas ships until the ballast water problem can be solved. Such a move wouldn't necessarily preclude overseas shipments, but it could require transferring cargo from overseas ships to a Great Lakes-specific fleet at some point downstream from the Great Lakes.

"Until a solution is implemented, we should continue to explore all possible cost-effective ways to further reduce or eliminate the introduction of aquatic nuisance species into the Great Lakes," said Lodge, who is also scheduled to make a presentation at the meeting. "Because of the high financial and environmental cost of invasions, it is reasonable to include among the options considered that the seaway be closed to ocean-going ships."

Tony Earl, former Wisconsin governor and Department of Natural Resources chief, also has been invited to speak. He says the issue reminds him of trying to get industry and municipalities to comply with the Clean Water Act.

"I can tell you, the reaction from the surface water polluters back then is similar to the shipping industry now," said Earl. "First of all denial, then resistance, then grudgingly acknowledging something has to be done."