Posts Tagged ‘Coal’


S.S. Badger Greenwashing to Keep Dumping Coal Ash in Lake Michigan

Friday, October 5th, 2012

S. S. Badger

I have written before about the S.S. Badger, the last coal-fired ferry on Lake Michigan. (see my September 29, 2012 blog post. The EPA in 2008 gave the ships owners 4 years to comply with the Clean Water Act and stop dumping tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan. Instead of converting to diesel or some other fuel, the ship owners recently asked the EPA for a 5 year extension of their coal dumping permit citing the need to study a conversion to liquified natural gas. Now, they are stooping to greenwashing.

As reported by Dave Alexander at Mlive.com, the S. S. Badger has extended it’s sailing season to November 2, 2012, in order to ship parts for 60 wind turbines for G.E. The ferry owners claim that this is another reason why the EPA needs to extend their coal dumping permit allowing them to operate next year and beyond. Perhaps the irony of shipping wind turbine parts on the only coal fired ship on the Great Lakes, a ship that dumps tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan each year, is lost on Lake Michigan Carferry. However it is not lost on me and some other commentators.

No amount of greenwashing makes their failure to comply with the Clean Water Act, seeking landmark status, or other delaying tactics more palatable. As the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal stated in a recent editorial: Lake Michigan Carferry needs to find a way to keep the ferry running without adding more coal ash to the lake. This has been going on long enough. No one argues that coal-fired power plants should keep operating because the technology they use has a historic status. Pollution does not deserve protection.

I agree. No amount of greenwashing should save Lake Michigan Carferry and it’s S.S. Badger from having to comply with the same laws as its competitors. The coal ash dumping must stop at the end of this season. They can use the off season to convert to diesel or find a way to store the ash on board until they can safely unload it. Enough is enough.

What do you think about the S.S. Badger story, leave a comment below or carry it over to Twitter @MaxiContainer


S.S. Badger – Last Coal Fired Ship on the Great Lakes

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

For anyone who has used the car-ferry between Luddington, MI and Manitowac, WI there are numerous benefits to the trip. The trip, by ferry, is 4 hours.  By car it is 7.5 hours (not including stops). Travel by ferry has a nostalgic aspect to it. You get out of the car, walk around, get something to eat, gaze out at the beauty of Lake Michigan. There is a snack bar, a dinning room, video arcade and children’s playroom. When the weather is good, you can sun on a lounge chair on the deck. It sounds idyllic, so what can be bad.

Usually, any form of mass transit is better environmentally than using your own car. This is not the case with the S.S. Badger. The Badger is the last coal fired ship on the Great Lakes. It dumps 4 tons of coal ash per day into Lake Michigan. According to environmental groups, the ashes contain lead, mercury and arsenic and potentially could contaminate the drinking water supply of over 10 million people.

In 2008 the E.P.A. gave them 4 years to comply with the Clean water Act. Now the owners of the S.S. Badger filed for a 5 year extension of their permit to dump coal ash in Lake Michigan. They are basing their request on the complexities of conversion to liquefied natural gas at a cost of over $8 million, even though LNG is not readily available in the Michigan market.

The owners of the S.S. Badger have tried other tricks to prevent them from having to spend money to convert to a cleaner fuel. They tried having the ship declared a National Landmark and have pressed legislators in Congress from both Wisconsin and Michigan to grant it an exemption to the Clean Water Act rules.

As reported at MLive.com Alliance for the Great Lakes President Joel Brammeier thinks he has a simple solution to the Badger problems that will end the historic 50-year-plus coal ash discharges into the lake and keep the Badger operating and providing an economic boost to both states.

Instead of granting the Badger the five-year permit while Lake Michigan Carferry owners explore converting the 410-foot ferry from coal to liquefied natural gas, Brammeier made two suggestions.

• Convert the coal-powered steam ship – the only remaining one in the United States – to diesel engines.

• Develop a means to store the hot coal ash in the Badger’s hull to be offloaded and disposed after the ferry arrives in port.

Both these suggestions make more sense to me then trying a complex conversion to LNG. Diesel conversion has been done by other ship owners in as little as 6 months. Conversion to diesel could be completed in the off-season and be ready for next summer.  The EPA does not need to grant a 5 year extension to keep the $40,000,000 impact to the port communities and the jobs this makes possible. Instead they should deny the permit and demand either a conversion to diesel or the storage of the ash on board until it can be safely offloaded at port for proper treatment.