Coast Guard Study will look at Effects of Ship 'Sweepings'

3/15 - Shipping companies that transport iron ore, coal and other materials across the Great Lakes are using the lakes as a dumping ground for leftover cargo, despite federal laws and an international treaty that prohibit the practice. U.S. and Canadian freighters dump about 2 million pounds of so-called "cargo sweepings" into the Great Lakes each year, according to federal data. Cargo sweepings are residual materials left on deck and inside freighters after a ship is unloaded; those residuals must be removed to avoid contaminating future cargo loads.

Shipping companies have discarded cargo sweepings for more than 75 years by pumping the materials and wash water into the Great Lakes. Because the dumping usually takes place several miles offshore -- where each ship dumps anywhere from a few pounds to a few thousand pounds of cargo residuals -- few people outside the industry know about it. Federal officials have known about the dumping for nearly two decades. But regulators have turned a blind eye because shipping industry officials and some scientists claim cargo sweeping is environmentally harmless and contend there are no viable disposal alternatives.

But there could be changes on the horizon. The U.S. Coast Guard is about to launch the first scientific study to determine whether "dry cargo sweeping" is harming the Great Lakes. That study could determine whether government agencies restrict the practice or ban it outright; at the present time, the Coast Guard wants to permit cargo sweeping.

The shipping industry, of course, is opposed to any restrictions. "Banning cargo sweeping would be catastrophic to the shipping industry -- it would shut down power production, steel production and all kinds of construction activities in the region," said James Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association, a shipping industry group based in Cleveland, Ohio.

One Great Lakes expert questioned why government agencies that spend billions to keep pollutants out of surface waters would allow freighters to dump tons of iron ore, coal, salt and cement dust into the world's largest source of fresh surface water. "We have to ask ourselves if this is good public policy. Are there better alternatives?" said Mark Coscarelli, a Lansing environmental consultant who worked in Michigan's Office of the Great Lakes for more than a decade. Coscarelli said the huge volume of cargo sweepings dumped in the lakes over the past 75 years has left what could best be described as underwater gravel roads on the bottom of lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior, Erie and Ontario. Most of the sweepings are discarded in or near shipping lanes, according to government reports.

Weakley said the cargo sweepings dumped overboard do not contain hazardous substances. "It's the equivalent of sweeping out my garage," he said. "I'm pretty sure the dust and dirt I sweep out of my garage is non-toxic, but I don't have any scientific data to back that up." Weakley said every human activity has some impact on the environment. "We don't stop farming because of soil erosion and the environmental impact it causes," he said.

The federal Clean Water Act prohibits waste dumping in the Great Lakes. So does an international shipping treaty, called MARPOL Annex V, that Congress adopted in 1990. U.S. officials who approved MARPOL V, which banned trash dumping at sea, apparently were unaware at the time that the treaty effectively outlawed cargo sweeping in the Great Lakes. Instead of banning cargo sweeping, the U.S. Coast Guard in 1993 adopted an interim exemption policy that allowed the practice to continue virtually unregulated. The Coast Guard now wants to make that interim policy a permanent rule, a move that would essentially legitimize an illegal activity but increase reporting requirements for shipping firms.

U.S. and Canadian freighters dumped 432,242 pounds of cargo sweepings in Lake Michigan in 2001, according to federal data. The biggest load of cargo sweepings that year, 680,300 pounds, was dumped in Lake Huron. The cargo sweepings discarded in Lake Michigan in 2001 included 187,530 pounds of iron ore, 80,132 pounds of coal and 138,548 pounds of stone, according to federal data. Coast Guard officials said it would be impractical to outlaw cargo sweeping in the lakes. Great Lakes freighters were not designed to carry cargo residuals, and disposing of the material while docked would be too expensive, according to federal officials.

Coast Guard officials said there is no scientific evidence that cargo sweeping is harming water quality or suffocating fish habitat in the Great Lakes. And they noted that the amount of cargo residue dumped overboard is less than 1 percent of the cargo freighters transport on the lakes. But there has never been a thorough scientific study of the environmental risks associated with cargo sweeping. Scientists at a 1993 conference convened to examine the issue said 75 years of dumping iron ore, coal and other minerals into the lakes could cause environmental problems.

"Iron ore, coal, petroleum coke and slag were determined by the committee to have the potential for both acute and chronic environmental impacts and were worthy of more intense scrutiny," according to a report titled "The environmental implications of cargo sweeping in the Great Lakes." "Of greatest concern to the committee, however, is the repetitive addition and probable buildup of these materials in bottom sediments and the potential chronic effects on both hard and soft bottom habitats," the report said. Coal that is shipped to power plants around the Great Lakes contains traces of heavy metals and other chemicals that can be toxic to humans, fish and wildlife if ingested. Iron ore and slag contain metals that can be "quite toxic," according to the report.

The 1993 report urged more study to determine whether cargo sweeping was burying fish habitat or causing other problems in the lakes. But those studies never materialized, federal officials said. "If all the Coast Guard does is take the interim policy from 13 years ago and make it permanent, that doesn't make me very happy," said Eric Reeves, the retired chief of environmental safety at the Coast Guard's Cleveland district office.

Reeves wrote the Coast Guard's interim policy in 1993. He said he hoped the interim policy would prompt more studies of cargo sweeping. Though Coast Guard officials have repeatedly defended cargo sweeping, a 2003 report by the agency said "discharges greater than 1,000 pounds should be avoided aggressively." Reeves said the Coast Guard should not adopt a final policy on cargo sweeping without a thorough scientific examination of the issue. "Let's conduct the scientific studies and not just say the problem is solved just because they have an administrative solution to it," Reeves said.

From the Muskegon Chronicle

Weakley's statements in paragraph six are so ludicrous. The CG says that ONLY one per cent of the cargo is deposited into the Lakes - but one per cent is a huge amount when one considers the TOTAL amount of cargo which is transported across the Great Lakes. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of the study.

His remark about "sweeping out the garbage" is probably correct in a sense. That probably is where the garbage actually goes also. I have heard deck hands say that they are painting the ships constantly throughout the summer and they admit that the paint scrapings all go overboard as well. So I guess there is more than just cargo to worry about.

Lead-based paint maybe?

Actually there is little to worry about concerning sweepings from most of the cargo that the domestic ships haul. The major loads consist of taconite, coal, salt and grain and none of these is considered harmful to the lakes. Actually the coal can be beneficial as a filtering agent and far more salt gets to the lakes by shoreline run-off than what is swept from the ships. In the long term the paint and non-cargo items that are dumped will be the most damaging. When you think about it, the most harmful will actually be a living thing that was brought in by ocean going vessels that visit the lakes, the Zebra mussel. Even though they do clarify the water, they also rob the lakes of food supplies for native fish, damage property and are slowely destroying the underwater archeological sites and shipwrecks.

If I remember correctly, it is illegal for ships to use lead-based paint on their hulls anymore. I remember reading complaints from shipping companies that the new paints weren't holding up to the rigors of the cold water, ice and rubbing encountered through the locks very well which is why lake boats look so bad so soon after painting. The decks and cabins may be another story.

Todd S., If your out there can you help us out on this matter?