20 



the right moment. So this makes it difficult to predict what the 



next one is. , , , 



As far as the barn door being closed too late, there are many spe- 

 cies out there in Europe, Asia, South America, that have yet to 

 gain access to North America and that can be carried to North 

 America and to the United States by ballast water, and we would 

 certainly not want them here. 

 Mr. Ryan. If I could comment on that, Mr. Taylor. 

 It would be catastrophic for the shipping industry of the world if 

 there were quarantine stations of the magnitude that would be 

 needed. I think Dr. Carlton would be better qualified to state how 

 long it would take to test the biological and species level of life in a 

 tank. We are talking about tanks several times the size of this 

 room in many cases. We are talking about a lot of water. 



The Great Lakes trade, we, in fact, are changing ballast every 

 few days. We take cargo on one day and discharge it, and the next 

 day we are in ballast and the next day we are loading. So we are 

 constantly taking on and discharging ballast. 



In the international trade, although the ballast water may be on 

 board longer, you are dealing with larger vessels. And what should 

 be very clear is although the ballast water exchange program for 

 the lakes works, it is because the maximum size vessel is 26,000 

 tons. Heck, the large vessels coming into the United States are 

 much larger than that. The Saint Lawrence River itself is a prob- 

 lem because they have ships of 150,000 tons, and those ships cannot 

 exchange ballast the same way smaller boats can. And so you have 

 the magnitude of size. 



Regarding the chlorine level, this is part of the problem with 

 using any chemicals. And, let's face it, in the lakes there is a cur- 

 rent controversy as to how much chlorine should go into the 

 system. In fact, there are some folks who would like to see Lake 

 Superior chlorine-free. There is a major debate on that. 



But if we had enough chlorine to kill the fish in the tanks, I 

 wonder what port would receive our ballast water as we discharge 

 it into their water where their desirable fish are living; whether we 

 would have a great fish kill. So there are certain problems, sir. 



Mr. Taylor. If I am not mistaken, almost every city in America 

 chlorinates its water, its wastewater, as it goes out to wherever it 

 is going. If I am not mistaken, every city is mandated to do that. , 

 And chlorine, one of the good things about chlorine, is that the 

 sunlight will break it down within a short period of time once it is 

 introduced into the water. 



Believe me, I am not a great advocate of puttmg additional costs 

 on the steamship industry, and I am not so sure that we can 

 change anything now if we try. There is always the case, as Dr. 

 Carlton says, of one guy who happens to catch one species spawn- 

 ing or in spat, or whatever you want to call it, and got into a tem- 

 perature who, one night as he arrives in some port decides he is 

 going to dump his tanks. This may all be quite an effort in futility. 

 Ms. Kimball. If I might, I think one of the differences is, in 

 sewage treatment plants the chlorine is used to eliminate bacteria. 

 In these cases, we may be using chlorine to eliminate fish, and we 

 would have concerns about the impact on different aquatic species 

 that we do want to survive in the water. 



