May 14, 2026

Why EPA’s Vessel Rule Falls Short for Lakers

Lakers are spreading invasive species throughout the Great Lakes. Here's what ELPC is doing about it.

By Wendy Bloom, Senior Attorney & Elise Zaniker, Associate Attorney

“Lakers” are commercial ships operating on the Great Lakes exclusively.  Due to the huge amount of lake water these vessels take into their ballast tanks at one port and release elsewhere, Lakers pollute the Great Lakes by spreading invasive species.  Devices called Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) are effective at treating ballast water to kill the invasive species before that water is discharged, but the U.S. Laker industry has resisted installing them.

Congress directed EPA to fix this issue by passing the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA), which requires EPA to set the most stringent and technology-forcing standards for invasive species in ballast water discharge.  Instead of doing so by requiring all Lakers to install BWMS, EPA’s rule exempts existing Lakers from installing BWMS and requires only new Lakers not yet built to install them.  Lakers operate for decades and new Lakers are rarely built, so EPA’s exemption leaves the Great Lakes vulnerable as the vast majority of Lakers will continue spreading invasive species for decades to come.  Also, EPA made matters worse by eliminating a requirement for vessels to avoid uptake of ballast water in areas known to have infestations of harmful organisms and pathogens, such as toxic algal blooms.

ELPC is challenging EPA’s vessel rule in court, and Alliance for the Great Lakes, the National Wildlife Federation and Minnesota Environmental Partnership have joined us in the fight.

We are also opposing the Laker Industry’s lawsuit which attempts to undo EPA’s requirement for new Lakers to install BWMS in a lawsuit.  Our most recent step in these lawsuits is the Intervenor Brief that we recently filed on May 8.

The Problem: Lakers Are Spreading Invasive Species Throughout the Great Lakes

Ballast water discharge by Lakers is a primary pathway for the spread of invasive species throughout the Great Lakes.  For stability and balance, Lakers take huge amounts of Great Lakes water into their ballast tanks (up to 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth per trip), including all the invasive species in that water.  Each of 63 U.S. Lakers makes 50 to 140 trips per year.  On each voyage, Lakers discharge their ballast water back into the Great Lakes in a different location than where they took it in thereby releasing the invasive species caught up in that water to a new location.  Lakers are identified by one study as “the most important ballast-mediated pathway” for spreading invasive species within the Great Lakes system.

Since the 1980s zebra mussel invasion caused by ballast water releases into the Great Lakes by oceangoing vessels coming from Europe, there are now 64 harmful invasive species in our Great Lakes.  These invasive species wreak economic and environmental havoc, including damage to recreation, tourism, commercial fishing, and infrastructure.  The U.S. spends about $9 billion each year to control for aquatic invasive species.  Despite these huge impacts, Lakers continue spreading invasive species throughout the Great Lakes in their ballast water discharges even though a proven solution exists, BWMS.

The devasting harm Lakers cause to our Great Lakes as a result of their refusal to install BWMS,  will be compounded by EPA’s elimination of a requirement barring for vessels to avoid uptake of ballast water in areas known to have infestations of harmful organisms and pathogens, for example, near sewage outfalls and dredging operations.

The Solution: BWMS Are Effective If Only U.S. Lakers Would Install Them.  

BWMS are devices a vessel can install which are specifically designed to kill or remove invasive organisms while in a vessel’s ballast tank before ballast water is released.  The U.S. Coast Guard has approved over 54 different types of BWMS.

Both land-based and shipboard studies of BWMS operating with Great Lakes water or on the Great Lakes demonstrate BWMS can operate on Lakers without significant operational challenges and will substantially reduce the living organisms in ballast water discharges.  Indeed, studies show that BWMS reduce the concentration of living organisms in ballast water discharge by over 99% when operating in the Great Lakes.  Engineering studies show all types of Lakers can be modified to install BWMS, and studies by the US Coast Guard and Canada estimate it will cost substantially less to retrofit the existing U.S. Laker fleet with BWMS than a study commissioned by the Lake Carriers Association, the Laker Industry group.  Of course, requiring vessels to avoid taking in water in areas with known infestations of pathogens and harmful organisms, as the U.S. required prior to EPA’s elimination of the rule, reduces their spread.

In 2021, Canada adopted a standard requiring all Lakers that discharge ballast water in the Canadian Great Lakes ports to install and operate BWMS by either 2024 or 2030, depending on vessel age.  But, EPA’s rule just exempted existing U.S. Lakers from installing or operating BWMS.

What the Law Requires, What EPA Got Wrong & What the Laker Industry Seeks to Undo

VIDA, enacted by Congress in 2018, directs EPA to set the strongest type of rule for vessel ballast water discharges of invasive species, “application of the best available technology economically achievable, which shall result in reasonable progress toward the national goal of eliminating discharges of all pollutants.”

Requiring vessels to install, operate and maintain BWMS carries out VIDA’s purpose and intent of eliminating discharge of invasive species through ballast water.  EPA’s vessel rule issued in 2024 requires new Lakers to do just this.  But, EPA’s rule fails to require the same standard for the existing Laker fleet, creating a major regulatory gap.

Why that matters:

• While VIDA exempts certain types of vessels from regulation, Lakers are not exempt.
• Instead, Congress especially recognized the Great Lakes’ unique importance and the need to protect them from invasive species by adopting many Great Lakes-specific provisions in VIDA.
• VIDA requires technology to be used for invasive species where it is available and effective and EPA’s own record shows that BWMS meet both criteria.
• Existing Lakers operate for decades, and new Lakers are rarely built or converted (only 10 of the 63 US Lakers were built or converted in the past 25 years) so, EPA’s exemption for existing Lakers means most Lakers will traverse the Great Lakes with unregulated ballast water discharges for decades to come.
• Put simply: the technology exists, and it is economically achievable.

Also, EPA’s rule takes two steps backward from the existing standard, the 2013 Vessel General Permit. That regulation at least required some existing Lakers to install BWMS, those built or converted after January 1, 2009.  And, the 2013 VGP requires all vessels to avoid taking up ballast water in areas with known infestations of harmful organisms and pathogens, which makes common sense.  This backsliding in EPA’s new vessel rule violates VIDA.

The Laker Industry seeks to make matters worse.  They filed a lawsuit asking the court to undo the portion of EPA’s new rule that will require new Lakers to install, operate and maintain BWMS.  If successful, that challenge would exempt all Lakers – new and existing – from meaningful ballast water treatment requirements.

A Path Forward: What ELPC Is Doing About All This

EPA’s current rule is not the final word. Through ongoing litigation, ELPC and the environmental groups who have joined with us are pushing for a rule that aligns with the law, the science, and the urgency of protecting the Great Lakes. Because when it comes to the Great Lakes, preventing the spread of invasive species isn’t optional, it’s essential.

ELPC filed our Opening Brief challenging the harmful portions of EPA’s new rule on December 19, 2025.  You can read our Opening Brief here.  The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, and the States of Illinois and Vermont filed an Amici Curiae Brief on January 5, 2026 supporting our effort to reverse these portions of EPA’s rule.  You can read their Amici Curiae Brief here. 

And, we recently filed our Intervenor Brief on May 8, 2026, opposing the Laker Industry attempt to exempt even new Lakers from installing, operating and maintaining BWMS.  You can read it here. 

Final briefing will occur on June 12, when parties file their reply briefs.  After this, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will decide whether to require EPA to go back to the drawing board and promulgating a rule that complies with VIDA and reduces the spread of invasive species pollution in the Great Lakes by requiring all Lakers (those existing now and those built in the future) to install, operate and maintain BWMS and to avoid taking water into their ballast tanks from areas known to be infested with harmful pathogens.