New saltie on Great Lakes is first with onboard ballast treatment

Fednav, Canada's largest Great Lakes shipping fleet, took delivery this week of the first Great Lakes-bound saltie with a permanent, on-board ballast water treatment system.

The landmark move means that ballast water will be treated on the ship to - if it works well - help prevent the spread of aquatic exotic species from foreign ports into Great Lakes waters.

The 656-foot freighter Federal Biscay could be in the Twin Ports as early as next spring, likely picking up a load of grain for shipment to a European or Asian destination.

Untreated ballast water has been blamed for dozens of foreign introductions into the lakes, including zebra and quagga mussels, spiny water fleas, ruffe and goby - foreign species that can wreak ecosystem and economic harm.

Fednav's shiny new ship was delivered to the company at the Oshima, Japan, shipyards.

The Federal Biscay is the first of 12 new Fednav ships that will be constructed with the BallastAce treatment system built in as the Canadian ship owner moves to upgrade its fleet. The 34,500-ton freighter is designed to haul bulk cargo like grain from Great Lakes ports to destinations worldwide and is sized to fit through Great Lakes system locks.

The BallastAce system uses both high-capacity filters and a sodium hypochlorite bleach injection mechanism in the ship's ballast system. It's intended to work in both freshwater and saltwater to kill most living organisms in the ballast water before it's released as ships take on cargo.

The company has moved despite ongoing claims from other shipping interests that ballast treatment remains unproven or too expensive.

"This is a pivotal step in protecting the Great Lakes against invasive species and preserving biodiversity in the region," said Paul Pathy, president and co-CEO of Fednav Limited, in a statement. "Fednav is proud to be the first shipping company to deploy such systems, and we are pleased that the Federal Biscay is serving as a test ship for this technology."

The Federal Biscay will make its first Great Lakes voyage when the St. Lawrence Seaway opens in early 2016, the company said. In addition to Duluth-Superior, the Federal Biscay will likely be seen in ports such as Burns Harbor, Ind., Milwaukee, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Windsor, Hamilton and Thunder Bay in Ontario.

FedNav operates a fleet of 80 oceangoing ships, of which 34 call on Great Lakes ports. The company is spending nearly $300 million to add 12 ships to the Great Lakes fleet. If the ballast system is approved by regulators, the company plans to retrofit the system on its existing fleet, said Marc Gagnon, director of government affairs for FedNav.

Gagnon said the ballast system costs about $500,000 per ship for new construction, more for retrofitting. That's far less than earlier predictions that it would cost multiple millions of dollars to add ballast treatment to each ship.

The company is moving ahead of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Coast Guard regulations that will require ballast treatment in most ships during the next decade, as ships are refitted or new ships built.

While a federal court order has left details of the federal ballast water treatment regulations in limbo, FedNav says they expect the system will meet or exceed the new standards.

The system will be tested for certification at the Great Ships Initiative facility in Superior as well as a Maryland facility.