Demotion of the Ocean

Back in April 2005, the ISW posted about the Federal judge in California that ordered the EPA to stop exempting ballast water from the Clean Water Act. Now that same judge has gone further, ruling last week that the EPA start regulating ballast water by Sept. 30, 2008. As reported by the Muskegon Chronicle, the EPA agreed...to appeal...again (you didn't think there was a chance they would decide not to appeal, did you?).

Here's a great quote from the article:

"If EPA had spent the last seven years developing a permitting program for ballast water instead of fighting this court battle, not only would our water be safer but our economy would be better protected"

- Deborah Sivas, director of the Stanford University Environmental Law School Clinic

In the meantime, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington have banded together and produced the Agreement on Ocean Health (pdf), and Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a bill to require that the California State Lands Commission have its own ballast management plan by 2008. Sign On San Diego has the story.