TOWARD DEVELOPMENT OF A GREAT LAKES RELEVANT BWMS TESTING PROTOCOL: ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCEPTABILITY OF TREATED BALLAST WATER UPON DISCHARGE

Abstract

Understanding the impact of ballast water treatment and neutralization methods on receiving waters is critical to minimizing harmful effects of ballast discharge to the environment, specifically the freshwater of Lake Superior and surrounding Laurentian Great Lakes. While studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of active substances and disinfection byproducts (DBP) produced by different Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) on marine waters, very little has been done to determine what impact these treatment systems could have on a highly utilized Great Lakes port like the Duluth-Superior Harbor, with its seasonally fluctuating organic carbon content and low percent transmittance. Throughout this project, the focus was on a BWMS that utilizes UV radiation combined with filtration as the primary treatment. A series of samples were collected at the Montreal Pier Ballast Treatment System Testing Facility, Superior, WI, during the evaluation of Great Lakes-compatible treatment systems. DBP concentrations and whole effluent toxicity tests were conducted to determine the toxicity of treated discharge water to living aquatic organisms representing three levels of the food web (plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates).