CALIFORNIA has decided to delay enforcement of ballast water regulations for at least two years because no practical treatment technology appears to be good enough to meet the state's high environmental standards.

In response, Governor Edmund Brown has signed a bill into law, mandating at least a two-year delay with some provisions not expected to bite until 2020, reports GAC Hot Port News.

The California State Lands Commission recommended an enforcement delay scheduled for January, based on the lack of treatment technologies to comply with all of California's standards.

Under the new rules "some vessels built on or after January 2016", compliance will not be affected until 2018. But there will be no delay in the "zero detectable living organism" rule that comes into force in 2020.

The Lands Commission will investigate ballast water treatment technologies that comply with California standards and report by July 1, 2014.