New ballast treatment could help shield Lake Superior from deadly fish disease

Great Lakes cargo ship. (Photo courtesy Michigan Sea Grant. Reprinted with permission from Michigan Technological University.)

By Jennifer Donovan

HOUGHTON -- A Michigan Technological University professor has developed a new water treatment that could help keep a deadly fish disease out of Lake Superior.

David Hand, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, has devised a simple way to treat ballast water in vessels ranging from pleasure craft to ore boats. His method is designed to kill the virus that causes viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), an often-fatal disease that has been attacking fish populations in the lower Great Lakes.

Hand's treatment is simple. The ballast water is disinfected with sodium hypochlorite -- ordinary household bleach. Then it is treated with ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, which neutralizes the bleach before the water is released into the lake.

With good initial results, Hand has tested his method on the Ranger III, a National Park Service vessel that shuttles visitors and staff between the mainland and Isle Royale National Park ...

Click here to read the rest of this article, published June 4, 2008, on the Michigan Tech Web site.