The National Marine Manufacturers Association today filed an amicus brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, addressing the impact a recent federal court ruling on ballast water will have on recreational boats. Under the September 2006 ruling, all ships that discharge ballast water must obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act. The ruling is intended to alleviate the problem of invasive species entering the nation’s waterways. “It’s important for us, on behalf of the nation’s 72 million boaters, to inform the U.S. Court of Appeals of the unintended consequences of the ballast water decision,” said Monita Fontaine, the NMMA’s vice president and senior counsel of government relations. Under the ruling, the EPA also is required to develop a permitting program for virtually all the 18 million recreational boats in the United States by September 2008. “We are filing this brief to defend boating from an unprecedented, complex and costly permitting system,” said Fontaine. “Frankly, permitting recreational boats will not stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. The threat from invasive species needs to be dealt with realistically, by stopping their introduction through commercial shipping ballast water long before those ships enter U.S. waters.”
