The Northeast-Midwest Institute’s Great Ships Initiative has begun land-based testing, with two vendors of ballast water management systems receiving approval testing in fresh water of their systems. Several other vendors are in line for next year’s testing season. NEMWI’s Great Ships Initiative, established in 2009, has helped vendors prepare systems that work in fresh water by testing their prototypes and providing them the results. As a result of this status testing, there are now many vendors vying for slots for actual certification testing at GSI and its partner facility in Maryland.
Ballast treatment, required on ships in the United States, is due in large part to NEMWI and NEMW Coalition efforts to establish federal regulations through the 1990 Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act, and 1996 National Invasive Species Act. Requirements, while necessary, are not sufficient to protect the NEMW region’s Great Waters from more ship-mediated introductions of invasive species. Only installation of competent ballasts water treatment systems will do that. To read more about GSI and its crucial role in bringing effective ballast treatment on ships to fruition in the NEMW region, click here.