Ballast Water Management Act of 2007

Summary

Ballast Water Management Act of 2007 - Amends the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990 to direct the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to issue regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of nonindigenous aquatic species in waters of the United States (under current law, of aquatic nuisance species into the Great Lakes). Directs the Secretary to: (1) issue regulations to establish national ballast water discharge standards that limit the number of living organisms contained in ballast water discharged from vessels into waters of the United States; and (2) determine whether one or more alternative ballast water management methods are available to achieve those standards. Requires vessel operators to conduct all ballast water management operations in accordance with a ballast water management plan designed to minimize the discharge of aquatic nuisance species. Regulates ballast tank sediment management. Removes provisions allowing, except in the Great Lakes, a vessel to exchange ballast water in a harbor if it has, because of safety, not done so at sea. Replaces a ballast water management demonstration program with a shipboard technology evaluation and demonstration program to evaluate alternative ballast water management methods aboard vessels to prevent aquatic nuisance species from being introduced into and spread through discharges of ballast water in waters of the United States. Requires a program to demonstrate and verify technologies and practices to monitor and control the introduction of aquatic invasive species by ship pathways other than the release of ballast water.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in House (text)

  Introduced in House · EN · 22 May 2007

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House (PDF)

  Introduced in House · EN · 22 May 2007

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 22 May 2007

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.