Canada's lakers protest applying US EPA sea rules to inland waters

CANADA's lakers, plying waters from the Gulf of St Lawrence to Thunder Bay at the western tip of Lake Superior, are protesting a "unilateral" decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to apply rules are limited to parts of Canadian and US sea coast.

Adhering to the UN International Maritime Organisation's anti-pollution rules mandating the use of expensive non-polluting low-sulphur fuel be used within 200 miles of the North American coast, the EPA has extended it inland to waters separating Canada and the US.

"The EPA has assumed that the analysis done for ocean shipping applies equally to the Great Lakes - this is clearly not the case," said Bruce Bowie, president of the Canadian Shipowners Association, which represents the owners of 68 Canadian ships on the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River.

Mr Bowie told London's Containerisation International that "the new rules could result in a major modal shift in commodity transport to rail or truck. Such a shift will result in a significant increase in not only air emissions and greenhouse gases, but will also lead to further road congestion and related accidents."

The IMO approved a US-Canadian government proposal for an ECA on March 26, through an amendment to Marpol Annex V1. The ECA will take effect in August 2012.

(Source: www.schednet.com)