SCHUMER ANNOUNCES PASSAGE OF BILL TO EXEMPT RECREATIONAL BOATERS FROM NEEDING SAME EXPENSIVE PERMITS AS OIL TANKERS – RESCUES THOUSANDS OF SMALL BOATERS ACROSS CENTRAL NEW YORK REGION FROM FACING A POTENTIAL FINE OF UP TO $32K PER DAY

Inane EPA Rule Would Have Placed the Same Fed Regulations on Massive Freighters and Family Boats

Schumer Pushed Bill to Exempt Recreational Boaters From Needing New Permits, While Ensuring Larger Polluting Commercial Ships Meet Environmental Standards

Without the Bill, the New Rule Would Have Financially Strangled Recreational Boating Industry in Central New York, Would Have Affected Boaters on Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, and others, and Would Have Cost Region Millions in Lost Revenue

Following a hard-fought push for legislation to rescue small boaters from being financially strangled by a proposed federal regulation, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced Senate and House passage of a bill that exempts recreational boaters from obtaining the same permits as massive oil tankers and freight ships or face fines of up to $32,000 per day. The bill also ensures larger pollution-causing commercial boats are still forced to meet environmental standards.

A 2006 decision by the U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be accountable for regulating the discharge of ballast water from large commercial ships and tankers. However, the EPA was set to implement the rule to cover small family-owned boaters as well, forcing them to obtain the same costly permits as large commercial ships despite the minimal amount of pollution their boats give off. The rule was set to kick in on September 30th of this year.

In June, standing at the Riverfront Park in Brewerton and joined by local recreational boaters, sportsmen and businesspeople, Schumer fought for the Clean Boating Act of 2008, which would ensure that Central New York’s small boaters aren’t forced to procure the new permits, while ensuring larger pollution causing commercial boats are still forced to meet environmental standards. Schumer warned that unless recreational boaters were relieved from meeting the new standard, the boating industry across the Region would have taken a serious financial hit. The industry currently has a $152 million economic impact across the region and employs nearly 100 jobs in the region.

“This is terrific news for the 58,000 recreational boaters across Central New York and the surrounding areas. The storm cloud of onerous and unfair regulations on Upstate New York’s small boaters is finally on its way out,” Schumer said. “The impending regulation defied every iota of reason and that’s why we fought to ensure recreational boaters are exempt from it and that it only properly pertains to oil tankers and massive freight ships. I urge President Bush to quickly sign this bill into law so that we can remove the threat of budget busting fines on our thriving recreational boating industry across New York.”

Under the EPA rule, Central New York’s 58,000 registered recreational boaters would have been forced to purchase new government permits for their boats or face fines of up to $32,500 per day. A 2006 court decision in California would expand a federal water law designed to keep tankers and massive freight boats from polluting waterways to cover small, family-owned recreational boaters as well. All recreational boats would have, by September of 2008, been required to obtain a federal or state permit to operate their vessel.

Although the court case involved regulating ballast water from foreign ships, it also overturned a 35 year old exemption that applied to the water-based, incidental discharges of all vessels, including recreational boats. Incidental discharges can include rainwater run-off and engine cooling water, as well as the run-off of oil, raw sewage, hazardous pollutants and garbage. Oil tankers and large commercial ships are the main culprits for incidental discharges.

However, without the Clean Boating Act of 2008, Central New York’s recreational boaters would have had to abide by the same regulations as large commercial ships, forcing them to procure potentially costly federal and state permits. It could have even involved forcing boaters to purchase multiple permits to operate their boats in different states.

The fear was that the new permits and the fines of up to $32,500 could have hurt the booming recreational boating industry across Central New York. Across the region, over 58,000 recreational boaters regularly take part in boating.

Across Central New York, the National Marine Manufacturers Association identifies 224 recreational boating businesses, employing 868 people that bring in $234 million in yearly sales and help generate $163 million in spending yearly on boating trips. The total economic impact of craft and trip spending in the district includes $614 million in sales connected to 5,237 jobs and generating $199 million in labor income annually. An additional $334 million is generated yearly in secondary value-added income by the boating industry in the Central New York region, according to the association.

Schumer today announced both Senate and House passage of Clean Boating Act of 2008, which will exempt recreational boat owners from having to obtain a federal water-pollution permit. The bill exempts recreational boaters from having to acquire the permits, but will still ensure that larger commercial boats and oil tankers have to meet the environmental standards and obtain the permits.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Nelson, passed both the Senate and House today. It will now go to the President’s desk.

ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO ANNOUNCES MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL VICTORY IN PROTECTING NEW YORK’S GREAT LAKES FROM INVASIVE SPECIES

New York, other Great Lake border states win case against EPA over ballast water discharge regulations

Cuomo: Decision will Protect NY's Great Lakes from Invasive Fish and Aquatic Species that have devastating affects on environment, economy and human health

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 23, 2008) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced a major victory today in his efforts to protect New York state’s Great Lakes from environmental damage caused by the dumping of contaminated ballast water by large commercial ships.

New York, together with five other Great Lakes states and several environmental groups, won a court decision stipulating that large vessels and other oceangoing freight ships can no longer discharge pollutant-containing ballast water without a permit.

Cuomo today hailed the decision, stating that it will significantly reduce pollution in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, thereby protecting the ecosystems across upstate New York and ensuring that commercial and recreational fishing are not harmed.

“Today’s decision is a huge win in protecting New York state’s Great Lakes from invasive species and pollution that for too long have threatened our local ecosystems, economies and our health,” said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. “Preserving Lake Erie and Lake Ontario for years to come is vital to our quality of life, our economic growth and our environment.”

In a decision issued today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that ships must comply with the Clean Water Act. Beginning September 30, 2008, ships will no longer be able to discharge pollutant-containing ballast water without a permit from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA had previously exempted these destructive discharges of “biological pollution” from Clean Water Act controls, despite clear evidence that ballast water discharges from oceangoing ships were bringing many aquatic invasive species such as the infamous zebra mussel into U.S. waters.

The decision can be viewed online at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2008/july/BallastDecision.pdf.

Lake Erie and Lake Ontario border Western New York and the North Country and are critical to the environmental and socio-economic infrastructure of the regions. Ballast water discharges occur when a vessel is moved from one body of water to another and the water the ship carries with it is released. When these releases are untreated, they can contain transported invasive species that disrupt the natural ecosystem in the second body of water.

Untreated vessel ballast discharges have resulted in the introduction of more than 180 aquatic invasive species into the Great Lakes, and have similarly affected other U.S. waters. These discharges are a particularly harmful type of pollution because the invading species are able to reproduce and grow over time, allowing them to overwhelm entire ecosystems. They prey upon native species, causing population declines and harm to commercial and recreational fisheries. Billions of dollars in damage to fisheries, recreation, and public infrastructure is directly attributed to the aquatic invasive species epidemic.

* The zebra mussel, introduced into a small area of the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, has propagated into all five Great Lakes and many other North American waterways, reaching densities of up to one million per square yard and causing costly damage to water and power plants by clogging intake pipes.
* Invasive viruses and toxins, such as viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) and Type E botulism, have been implicated in recent large-scale fish and bird die-offs.
* Some native species, like unionid clams in the western basin of Lake Erie, are nearly extinct. Small organisms at the base of the food web also have been severely affected.

The devastating effect of invasive species has had direct human implications.

* A 2001 EPA report indicated that a strain of cholera that killed 10,000 people in Latin America in 1991 was introduced by the bilge water of a Chinese freighter. The strain then came to the U.S. in the ballast tanks of ships from Latin America, but was fortunately detected in oyster and finfish samples in the Alabama port where the ships anchored.
* The Department of Agriculture spends millions of dollars each year to combat invasive species. A study by the General Accounting Office estimated that the total annual economic losses and associated costs related to invasive species totals $137 billion – more than double the annual economic damage caused by all natural disasters in the United States.

The EPA is responsible for implementing the federal Clean Water Act but for years has allowed billions of gallons of contaminated ballast water to be discharged annually without the controls mandated by the Act. This illegal permit exemption has exacerbated the large scale ecological, commercial, financial, and recreational harms wrought by invasive species.

The decision focuses on the need to regulate ballast water discharges from large oceangoing cargo ships, which was the goal of the lawsuit. The ruling gives the EPA broad flexibility and discretion with respect to discharges from other types of boats. In order to further clarify that the Clean Water Act does not require the regulation of small recreational boats, the U.S. House and Senate yesterday both passed legislation that would exempt these boaters from Clean Water Act regulation of discharges incidental to the normal operation of their vessels.

The case is being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Timothy Hoffman and Michael J. Myers of the Environmental Protection Bureau under the supervision of Special Deputy Attorney General Katherine Kennedy.