After the recent in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, some experts say California officials have failed to effectively enforce laws designed to protect waterways from invaders carried in ships鈥� ballast water.
A has required California officials to inspect 25% of incoming ships and sample their ballast water before it鈥檚 discharged into waterways. But the tests didn鈥檛 begin until two years ago 鈥� after standards for conducting them were finally set 鈥� and testing remains rare. State officials have sampled the ballast water of only 16 vessels out of the roughly 3,000 likely to have emptied their tanks nearshore.
Experts say stronger regulations are needed, as well as better enforcement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not really a surprise that another invasive species showed up in the Delta,鈥� said Karrigan B枚rk, a law professor and the interim director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. 鈥淚t鈥檚 likely to continue happening.鈥�
Native to eastern Asia, the mussels 鈥� detected near the Port of Stockton, in a small San Joaquin Valley reservoir and several other Delta locations 鈥� were the first to be detected in North America. If the mollusc evades eradication efforts, it could spread over vast areas of California and beyond, crowd out native species and clog parts of the massive projects that export Delta water to cities and farms.
Ted Lempert, a former Bay Area Assemblymember who authored a 1999 state law aimed at preventing ships from bringing invasive species into California, said state officials 鈥渁pparently took their eyes off the ball.鈥�
鈥淲e were trying to get ahead of the game, so I鈥檓 really frustrated that after all these years some of the events we were trying to prevent have come to pass,鈥� he said.
But the prospect of an invasive species colonizing a new region frequented by ships 鈥渋s a numbers game鈥� that can happen even under the most rigorous regulations and enforcement, said Greg Ruiz, a marine ecologist with the Marine Invasions Research Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. 鈥淭his is not a failure in the system,鈥� he said.
Ballast water is stored in tanks to stabilize vessels at sea. Often taken on at the port of departure and released at the port of arrival, it is a global vector of invasive species, including pathogens that cause human diseases.
鈥淲e were trying to get ahead of the game, so I鈥檓 really frustrated that after all these years some of the events we were trying to prevent have come to pass.鈥�Ted Lempert, former Bay Area Assemblymember
To address the threat to ecosystems and water supplies, the State Lands Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard enforce a suite of overlapping regulations.
The goal of these state and federal rules is to reduce as much as possible the number of living organisms in discharged ballast water. Vessel operators can achieve this by exposing their ballast water to ultraviolet light, filtering it and treating it with chlorine, which is then removed before discharge.
鈥楬ighest standards in the world.鈥� But are they enforced?
About 1,500 ships a year entering California waters release ballast water, according to Chris Scianni, environmental program manager of the State Lands Commission鈥檚 Marine Invasive Species Program. To check for compliance, officials board and inspect nearly all of them, plus another thousand vessels prioritized for inspection for other reasons, Scianni said.
During these inspections, officers review ballast water logbooks and reporting forms, interview crew members, inspect water treatment equipment, and occasionally take water samples for testing.
鈥淲e鈥檙e the only entity in the world that鈥檚 doing this right now,鈥� Scianni said.
A 2003 declares that the State Lands Commission 鈥渟hall take samples of ballast water, sediment, and biofouling from at least 25% of vessels鈥� subject to invasive species regulations. But commission officials told CalMatters they interpret it to mean that 25% of ships must be inspected, with no specific requirements for sampling.
Sampling for some ships began in 2023, after the commission enacted standards for how the tests are conducted. It鈥檚 : A cubic meter of water 鈥� which weighs a metric ton 鈥� must be collected from a ship. It can take an hour to draw, and it must be done while the vessel is actively discharging. Hours more may pass before results are ready.
Federal officials have their own ballast oversight program. It leans on a system of self-reporting by vessel operators 鈥� which critics consider a weak tool for ensuring compliance. An EPA spokesperson said the agency 鈥渃an assess compliance with (the rules) either through a desk audit or an on-site inspection.鈥�
Many experts told CalMatters that the state and federal limits on how many organisms are allowed in discharged water are adequate but that enforcement is lacking.
鈥淲e had the highest (ballast water management) standards in the world, but they were never actually enforced because the state couldn鈥檛 come up with a set of technologies to implement them,鈥� said Ben Eichenberg, a staff attorney with the group SF Baykeeper.
Ted Grosholz, a professor emeritus with the UC Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute said 鈥渢he standards are very exacting鈥he problem we have is compliance. How many ships coming in with ballast water can we really sample and verify? Enforcement officials can鈥檛 watch everyone.鈥�
鈥淭he standards are very exacting鈥he problem we have is compliance. How many ships coming in with ballast water can we really sample and verify? Enforcement officials can鈥檛 watch everyone.鈥�Ted Grosholz, UC Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute
Smithsonian鈥檚 Ruiz said state records show that all documented ballast discharges at the Port of Stockton since 2008 have followed state regulations.
Ships that discharge, however, occasionally remain uninspected as they enter a port. And some vessel operators may cheat, filling their ballast tanks with clean ocean water to pass off a faulty water treatment system as functional. Moreover, even treated ballast water can contain high levels of zooplankton.
Ruiz, who has studied California鈥檚 data on ship arrival and locations of the mussels, said it鈥檚 probable the golden mussel entered the Delta at least a year ago and even possible that it鈥檚 been there for a decade or more, adding that 鈥渋t could even have happened in the pre-treatment (of ballast water) era.鈥�
Somehow, the creature slipped through the cracks and made itself a new home in what has been called one of the on the planet.
It鈥檚 an outcome that Lempert as an assemblymember tried to prevent a quarter-century ago, when he authored the . required incoming vessels to either retain their ballast water, drain it while simultaneously refilling with new water hundreds of miles out at sea, or use an 鈥渆nvironmentally sound鈥� treatment system. It tasked the California State Lands Commission with monitoring vessels for compliance.
California has since enacted a complex system of regulations: In 2003, the Marine Invasive Species Act expanded the scope of Lempert鈥檚 legislation. Three years later, the to set limits on organism concentrations in ballast water; these 鈥溾�� were implemented in 2022. While the standards allow minute levels of organisms in the water, the goal is 鈥渮ero detectable living organisms鈥� by 2040.
Several federal laws also aim to protect U.S. waters from creatures like the golden mussel.
Penalties for breaking ballast management rules have been modest. At the state level, violations have resulted in 24 fines in the past six years, totaling just over $1 million. Federal fines are rare, with just nine penalties issued amounting to about $714,000 in the EPA鈥檚 Pacific Southwest region since 2013.
Commission officials said 鈥渢he frequency of noncompliant discharges 鈥� has dropped dramatically since our enforcement regulations (with penalties) were adopted in 2017.鈥�
Can ballast water be sterilized?
California officials say achieving the law鈥檚 goal of zero organisms in ballast water discharged into waterways is infeasible. It would require a network of treatment plants at coastal ports, costing $1.45 billion over 30 years. The shipping industry would face another $2.17 billion in costs for installing systems capable of transferring ballast water to the floating treatment plants.
But Eichenberg said some ships already use commercially available systems that consistently, and by a wide margin, outperform industry standards. He said the state鈥檚 failure to require that vessels use the most advanced treatment systems available 鈥� technology capable of nearly sterilizing ballast water 鈥� has culminated in the golden mussel鈥檚 arrival.
鈥淪omething like this was bound to happen eventually,鈥� he said.
State and federal performance standards 鈥� modeled after international standards 鈥� limit the concentration of living zooplankton-sized organisms, like mussel larvae, in ballast water before discharge to 10 per cubic meter. For smaller organisms, allowances are higher.
But even in ballast water that has undergone treatment in approved systems, zooplankton concentrations can be off-the-charts for reasons not always clear, according to Hugh MacIsaac, an aquatic invasive species researcher at the University of Windsor in Ontario, who has studied the spread of the golden mussel in South America and central China.
Treating ballast water doesn鈥檛 necessarily work. A study in Shanghai found up to 23,000 zooplankton-sized organisms per cubic meter in the ballast water of half of ships sampled, MacIsaac said.
Ruiz, at the Smithsonian research center, said the study鈥檚 sample size of 17 ships is too small to be representative and that such high concentrations are abnormal in the United States. 鈥淲e sample vessels here, and that鈥檚 not what we see coming into the U.S.,鈥� he said.
Ship operators have shifted radically in the past 20 years 鈥渇rom no management to a nearly complete use of open-ocean exchange to, now, an almost complete transition to ballast treatment technology,鈥� Ruiz said.
Attention turns to federal rules
The federal government, not state agencies, will soon become the key player in ballast management. That鈥檚 because new EPA rules, which are likely at least 18 months away from full implementation, will preempt state regulations.
The new 鈥� which state officials will help enforce 鈥� will keep the existing standards for organism concentrations, but prevent states from implementing their own rules that exceed federal standards. For example, California鈥檚 goal of zero detectable organisms in ballast discharge will be nixed.
Nicole Dobrosky, the State Lands Commission鈥檚 chief of environmental science, planning and management, said states can petition the federal government for changes to the rules.
Shippers welcome the shift to national rules that align with international standards, said Jacqueline Moore, Long Beach-based vice president of the .
鈥淎n international industry by nature, the maritime community always appreciates consistent standards across the board, and across the ocean in this case,鈥� Moore said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much easier for everyone.鈥�
鈥淲e have the technical ability to efficiently remove or kill organisms that are trapped in a tank of water. For half a century federal law has required EPA to 鈥rotect the environment and public health 鈥� yet EPA still refuses to do so.鈥�Environmental groups, in a letter to Pres. Biden
But the change of regulatory oversight concerns Marcie Keever, the oceans and vessels program director with Friends of the Earth. She said that to date the State Lands Commission has been the more active enforcer.
Preempting state laws with federal standards that she says are too weak 鈥渨ill essentially give the shipping industry a free pass to pollute鈥hese shipping companies are self-reporting pollution instances, and no one is doing anything about it except for the state.鈥�
In 1973, the EPA exempted ballast water from the Clean Water Act. Eventually forced by to comply with the act, the agency released its newest in October for limiting organism concentrations in ballast water.
Keever said the EPA is not setting the bar as high as it should.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still basically at the same place we were at 20 years ago,鈥� Keever said. 鈥淭he EPA has never set what we see as the best available technology for ballast water discharges.鈥�
More than 150 environmental groups made similar claims in a 2022 to President Joe Biden, arguing that the technology exists now to almost entirely sterilize ballast water.
鈥淸W]e have the technical ability to efficiently remove or kill organisms that are trapped in a tank of water,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淔or half a century federal law has required EPA to use that ability to protect the environment and public health 鈥� yet EPA still refuses to do so.鈥�
The EPA disagrees with the criticism. Joshua Alexander, press officer with the agency鈥檚 Region 9 San Francisco office, told CalMatters that 鈥渢he EPA concluded that these standards (in the new rules) are the most stringent ones that the available ballast water test data can support.鈥�
Can anything stop the mussel invasion?
October鈥檚 discovery of the golden mussel in California is being treated urgently by state and federal officials.
The creatures have wreaked havoc on water supply and hydroelectric facilities in South America, and they are spreading rapidly through central China. In the Great Lakes, invasive zebra mussels cause in damages annually to power plants and other water infrastructure 鈥� the types of impacts officials in California hope to avoid.
Tanya Veldhuizen, the Department of Water Resources鈥� special projects section manager, said officials are considering the use of chemicals to remove the creatures from pumps, intakes and pipelines of the massive State Water Project, which transports water to farms and cities.
Several scientists told CalMatters that with most nonnative species, eradication is only possible early in the game 鈥� meaning management officials often have one shot at success.
Biologist Andrew Chang, who works at the Smithsonian research center鈥檚 Marin County field lab, noted an old adage in invasion ecology 鈥� containing the spread of a nonnative species is like trying to put toothpaste back into a tube. 鈥淭he more time that passes, the process of putting the toothpaste back in the tube gets messier and messier,鈥� Chang said.
University of Windsor鈥檚 MacIsaac thinks California may be on the cusp of an unstoppable mussel invasion.
鈥淭his is an enormous problem for your state,鈥� he said.