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Preventing
Biological Pollution - Funded Projects
While the Fund remains open to project ideas that would address
a range of sources and impacts related to biological pollution
(see Current Interests provide link here), to date our investment
under this initiative has focused on the leading vector for
accidental transfers of invasive species to the Great Lakes-ships'
ballast tanks. Several Fund-supported projects are developing
technology and management solutions to prevent the unintentional
biological pollution of the lakes through the ballast practices
of ocean going vessels.
The Great Lakes Ballast Technology Demonstration Project
is designing and testing shipboard technology for the comprehensive
treatment and control of ballast-transported exotic species.
After being awarded their first grant from the Fund, which
was announced in July 1996 by Governors Engler, Ridge and
Thompson, the project became the first in the world to design
and install a ballast water filtration system on a working
vessel. With current Fund investment, the team of scientists,
marine engineers, naval architects, policy specialists, ship
owners and operators and equipment vendors is now demonstrating
full-scale designs of secondary treatment technologies. (Through
its initial work, the team discovered secondary treatment
to be necessary for removing smaller organisms and pathogens
of threat that escape filtration.) Besides designing, installing
and testing shipboard ballast water treatment solutions, the
team is introducing the technologies and vendors to the venture
finance community.
Another Fund-supported project team is exploring the role
of ballast management practices in introducing invasive species
to the Great Lakes. Not only can ships accidently pick up
and redistribute organisms and pathogens in the process of
taking on and letting out water from their ballast tanks,
these organisms can remain in resting stages in the sediment
and muck that is left over in the bottom of tanks after they
are emptied. This project team is working to characterize
the biological contents of ballast tanks in ships that have
supposedly empty ballast tanks, which are called NOBOBs for
having no ballast on board. They are also evaluating the impacts
of ballast management practices on the contents of ballast
tanks and measuring the effectiveness of open-sea ballast
exchange at flushing out foreign organisms that may pose a
threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Results and Accomplishments of Biological Pollution Projects
to Date:
- Installed the world's first filtration system on a working
vessel designed to prevent the contamination of ballast
water.
- Demonstrated that filtration technology is mechanically
reliable at flow rates associated with ballasting operations
in some container ships and cruise vessels.
- Identified a set of engineering lessons valuable to marine
architects designing ballast treatment systems.
- Showed that 25 micron and 50 micron filtration removed
95% to 99% of macrozooplankton, removed 70% to 80% of microzooplankton
and phytoplankton, and significantly reduced the levels
of bacteria attached to organisms and other matter.
- Showed that filtration alone did not reduce total bacteria
counts.
- Identified that UV radiation offers the most promise as
a secondary (post-filtration) treatment technology among
the three leading technology categories (UV radiation, thermal
and acoustic).
- Designed a sampling device capable of being sterilized
and pumping ballast water 63 vertical feet if the tank had
a water depth of six inches or more.
- 23 of 27 trans-oceanic ships sampled and analyzed had
one or more fecal indicating bacterial types and/or other
pathogens in at least one sample.
Projects
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