The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation says that the EPA has forced the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to continue to use a weak permit system that provides little protection against the introduction of invasive species into the Great Lakes:
 

To meet an unreasonable federally-imposed deadline that could have shut down shipping in Wisconsin waters, the Wisconsin DNR yesterday withdrew its proposed improvement of an EPA invasive species permit and allowed the original ineffective EPA permit to go forward unchanged. At the same time, the DNR committed to issuing a state permit that contains the protections against
invasive species that the EPA measure lacked.

“Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are being dealt a tough hand due to the U.S. EPA, which for decades neglected its responsibility to protect U.S. waters from invasive species, and now has issued at the 11th hour a weak permit that does little to stop the introduction of those species,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “While we would prefer to have a tough, national EPA permit, we believe our best chance for protecting Wisconsin’s waters is to encourage the state to use whatever authority it has to prevent invasive
species.”

As the Messenger noted a few weeks ago, Michigan’s permit system for preventing the introduction of invasive species was upheld by an appeals court.