Summary
This bill would amend the environmental conservation law to establish the Ballast Water Management Act, which would prohibit the discharge of untreated ballast water into New York waterways.

Explanation
Every hour an average of two million gallons of ballast water from foreign water bodies is dumped into U.S. bays and ports; an amount estimated at more than 21 billion gallons annually. In the Great Lakes alone, over 175 invasive species have been introduced through ballast water discharges.

Like zebra mussels, many exotic biological species are introduced to New York's marine and freshwater ecosystems through discharges of ballast water with devastating effects.  Once introduced these alien species can flourish, being free of natural predators from their place of origin, thereby disrupting the local food chain by feeding on native species or simply out-competing them.  The cost to Americans for dealing with invasive species now tops $150 billion and is rising fast. 

As a major shoreline state in the Great Lakes basin, New York has already been ravaged by the non-indigenous species menace. Both federal and state work groups agree that ballast water is the most significant vector for marine species transfer - and the most avoidable.

The federal government’s principal detection program - the Coast Guard’s ballast water inspection authority - has been rendered meaningless by a loophole that allows ships to claim they have no ballast. The net result is that 80 to 90 percent of foreign ships entering the lakes go uninspected.

This bill would prohibit the dumping of ballast water in New York waters except under certain circumstances and set up a program for ballast reporting and water sampling by vessels using the state’s waterways. These simple measures would go a long way toward stemming the tide of invasive species into New York, and thus would have far-reaching economic, recreational and environmental benefits for the state.

Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports this bill.