December 22, 2025
Washington, DC – On Friday December 19, 2025, four environmental groups filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Final Standards on ballast water discharges by vessels, including those navigating the Great Lakes, charging the new standards don’t provide sufficient protection from invasive species being released from their ballast water. The Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) filed the petition on behalf of itself, Alliance for the Great Lakes, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, and National Wildlife Federation (“Environmental Petitioners”).
US EPA’s Vessel Incidental Discharge National Standards of Performance were finalized in October 2024.
The Environmental Petitioners are challenging the part of EPA’s Final Standards that exclude existing vessels that have been operating exclusively in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway (“Lakers”) from the tougher rules aimed at reducing the level of invasive species released with their ballast water being imposed on all ocean-going vessels and only Lakers to be constructed in the future. But new Lakers are rarely constructed. An estimated 90% of existing Lakers have been operating in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway since before 2009, suggesting that the lion’s share of these vessels will continue to operate without being required to upgrade their ballast water management with technology that’s readily available.
Lakers are huge tanker type vessels. Each Laker holds up to 16.4 million gallons of Great Lakes water in its ballast tanks, equal to almost 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools. There are currently 63 U.S. Lakers. Each makes 50 to 100 trips annually across the Great Lakes. Lakers enable aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels and the red gobi to hitch a ride in the ballast water they take in and get spread throughout the Great Lakes when the ballast water is discharged. Lakers can also take up harmful pathogens in algal blooms with ballast water and release them in another port as their ballast water is discharged.
Additionally, Environmental Petitioners charge EPA’s Final Standards completely disregarded a statutory requirement that requires oceangoing vessels and Lakers to avoid taking up ballast water in areas with known infestations or populations of harmful organisms and pathogens.
The Environmental Petitioners also have intervened in a challenge to the Final Standards brought by the Lake Carriers’ Association, an industry group, and will file a separate brief in that case to help prevent the Association’s push to further weaken the Final Standards.
Wendy Bloom, Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said:
“Invasive species and algal blooms cause severe damage to our Great Lakes and to businesses in our Great Lakes region, and they ruin our enjoyment of these beautiful bodies of water. EPA’s new Final Standards that we’re challenging give existing Lakers a complete pass on implementing readily available technology to treat their ballast water before discharge and minimize the potential for spreading invasive species. We are petitioning to ask the Court to send the standards back to EPA and require them to do right by the Great Lakes as the statute requires.”
Joel Brammeier, President and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said:
“It’s long established that lake vessels can move destructive invasive species around the Great Lakes. The common-sense approach is to require ballast water management systems for all cargo vessels.”
Steve Morse, Executive Director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, said:
“Lake Superior may be our deepest lake, but it’s highly vulnerable to invasive species. 85% of ballast water discharged into the Great Lakes is dumped in the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior. To protect our ecosystems and communities, we need a standard for ballast water treatment that includes Lakers.”
Marc Smith, Great Lakes Policy Director for National Wildlife Federation, said:
“Invasive species introduced through ballast water are a clear and present danger to our Great Lakes. Unfortunately, the EPA standard will not adequately protect the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters from ballast water invaders. By exempting Lakers, the EPA fails to protect water quality and leaves the door open for future harm to our fisheries, economy and way of life.”