To the editor: Halloween introduced information of a scary new alien invasion — the discovery of golden mussels in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, seemingly launched in a ship’s ballast water. That needn’t have occurred.
If the U.S. Environmental Safety Company had carried out its job because the Clear Water Act required and applied efficient rules to regulate ballast water discharges, the mussel would by no means would have reached U.S. waters. In 2022, 34 members of Congress and 180 environmental, fishing and public well being organizations and Native American tribes begged the EPA to determine efficient ballast water guidelines, however the company by no means responded.
Now, water provide methods and freshwater ecosystems all through California — and doubtlessly all through a lot of North America — are in danger. This invasion was each predictable and predicted, and absolutely preventable.
There might be additional, doubtlessly extra dangerous, invasions if EPA doesn’t lastly act because the Clear Water Act directed.
Andrew Cohen, Richmond, Calif.
The author is director of the Heart for Analysis on Aquatic Bioinvasions.
