On Friday, December 19, 2025, the Alliance for the Great Lakes joined three other environmental groups and filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition challenges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Final Standards on ballast water discharges by vessels, including those navigating the Great Lakes. These standards are required under the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act of 2018, which the Alliance helped lead through Congress.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center filed the petition on behalf of itself, the Alliance, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, and National Wildlife Federation. Together, we are charging that the new standards don’t provide sufficient protection from invasive species being released from ballast water.
The reason? EPA’s final rule simply does not protect the Great Lakes from the threat of invasive species spreading.
EPA’s Final Standards only apply to ocean-going vessels and new “Lakers”, or ships that only travel on the Great Lakes. Each Laker holds enough Great Lakes water equal to almost 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The 63 vessels in the Laker fleet each make 50 to 100 trips annually across the Great Lakes. Lakers can enable aquatic invasive species to hitch a ride in the ballast water they take in and then spread further throughout the Great Lakes when the ballast water is discharged. With no natural predators or controls in their new ecosystem, invasive species out-compete native species, degrade habitat, alter the food web, and threaten the diversity or abundance of native species. Lakers also have the potential to take up toxins from harmful algal blooms and wildlife pathogens, then release them in another port with their ballast water.
Most Lakers operating on the Great Lakes will never be “new” under EPA’s definition. New Lakers are rarely constructed. An estimated 90% of existing Lakers have been operating in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway since before 2009. Practically, this means the bulk of freshwater vessels will be operating on the lakes without ever being required to treat their ballast water. There is also a statutory requirement that oceangoing vessels and Lakers avoid taking up ballast water in areas with known infestations or populations of harmful organisms and pathogens – a requirement EPA completely ignores in its Final Standards.
Exempting any Lakers from regulations is the wrong approach to combat invasive species. While tens of millions of Americans rely on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, a healthy Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan are also economic engines. They generate billions of dollars in the fishing, recreation, and tourism industries. If it were its own country, the Great Lakes region would have a GDP of $6 trillion – making it the third biggest economy in the world. Invasive species put that engine at grave risk.
The Alliance believes the common-sense approach is to require ballast water management systems for all cargo vessels and ensure the lakes are protected no matter when a ship was built or how long it operates. We look forward to working with our partners in the months to come as we make this case in court.