Ballast water has caused havoc in the world's aquatic ecosystems by discharging numerous invasive species and pathogens where they don't belong. New regulations to prevent the transport of nuisance aquatic species into the Great Lakes will soon require ships to treat ballast water outside the Great Lakes to kill or virtually eliminate all live organisms in the ballast water they discharge. It is a difficult problem: How can you design a ballast water treatment system that is lethal enough to kill practically everything being discharged and yet be so benign that the discharge is perfectly harmless? And how can you verify that the treatment systems are effective when installed and continue to be so after installation? This web site is designed to be an information nexus to provide the latest news about new ballast water treatment and verification technologies, about shipping activities, and about conferences and other items important to preventing invasive species from damaging the Great Lakes.

Project outreach has included a video exhibit at the Belle Isle Aquarium (below) and the very latest, an exhibit at the National Museum of the Great Lakes on the history of ballast technologies including recent technologies for protecting the environment from ballast, To find out more about the Museum exhibit, click on this link.  

Support for this web site and for the development of automated ballast water verification systems is provided by the Great Lakes Protection Fund.