Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Congress has passed legislation to provide a two-year moratorium for commercial fishing boats from getting pollution permits for discharges under the Clean Water Act. The legislation now goes to the president for his approval.

The moratorium applies to other commercial vessels less than 79 feet in length and to all commercial fishing boats.

Recreational boats will be exempt from obtaining permits at all for incidental discharges of water.

The legislation overturns a 2006 federal court ruling ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop a pollution permit for every vessel in the country by Sept. 30 of this year.

Failure to obtain the permits could have cost boaters up to $32,500 a day. Hazardous pollutants and discharges from boats are already regulated.

The approved legislation mandates a three-year study of whether any new management practices by the Environmental Protection Agency and Coast Guard should be required.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a sponsor of the legislation, said she hopes the study will provide the information needed to justify a permanent exemption for commercial boats.

Neither recreational nor small commercial vessels have documented discharge levels known to harm the environment, she said. The court case that required the EPA to develop a permit system was focused on invasive species and ballast water. Neither recreational nor small commercial vessels have ballast tanks and very few are oceangoing vessels, she said.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, a co-sponsor, said he and Murkowski pushed for a compromise that treated smaller fishing boats differently from such large commercial vessels as a cruise ship. "This compromise will allow for a two-year exemption while the impacts of incidental discharge are studied."

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said, "The court ruling that would require EPA permits for the incidental discharge of even rain water from recreational and commercial fishing vessels was silly and I am pleased that we are able to fix this problem."

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