Posts Tagged ‘Lake Michigan’


This Very Cold Winter is Good For the Great Lakes

Monday, February 10th, 2014


When you are outside and it is below zero and you are shoveling the latest snowfall in this record snowfall winter you don’t usually stop and think how all this cold and snow will affect your boating and swimming next Summer; but you should. The Great Lakes have been under significant strain the last few years with lake levels at historic low water levels.

Interestingly, the recent record low temperatures and the ice coverage that is the most in over 20 years will probably lead to higher lake levels next year. A recent satellite image from he National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that the ice coverage on the Lake Michigan is way above normal due to the extreme cold weather.

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According to NOAA’s Great Lake Coast Watch, about 45 percent of Lake Michigan is considered to be frozen. Lake Erie is about 95 percent ice-covered. Lake Superior is about 85 percent ice covered. Lake Huron is about 70 percent frozen and Lake Ontario is about 25% frozen.

A recent post by Lisa Borre in National Geographic’s Water Currents cites a report released by the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA), a federally funded collaboration between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, a team of American and Canadian scientists explains the relationship among evaporation, ice cover, and water temperature.

Prior to this year winter ice cover has declined by 71 percent over the last 40 years, on average. Summer water temperatures and annual evaporation have increased due to climate change. Apparently water temperature and evaporation are important factors that affect the lakes water levels. While you would think that the ice cap by itself reduces evaporation, the study states that it is the fact that the ice cap makes the lake cooler, so it delays the evaporation until later in the summer instead of July, when it usually begins.

So, as you shovel that latest snowfall, just think warm thoughts of boating and swimming next summer in healthier and deeper Great Lakes thanks to the largest ice cover in 20 years.


S.S. Badger Owners Try Landmark Status and Earmarks to Scuttle EPA Coal Rules

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

The owners of the S.S. Badger, the last coal fired ship on the Great Lakes are at it again. Since 2008, they have known that their permit to dump over 500 tons of coal ash annually into Lake Michigan would be expiring this month. Yet they have done nothing to resolve the issue. Instead they have asked the EPA for a permit extension while they study a possible conversion to Liquefied Natural Gas.

Now, according to the New York Times the owners of the ferry have enlisted friendly congressmen to bury in a Coast Guard re-authorization bill now in final negotiations between the House and the Senate:

Curious language saying a “qualified vessel” shall continue to operate for its entire lifetime, “without regard to any expiration dates” on the permit it operates on.”

Since the S.S. badger was placed on National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2009, the language in this bill would allow it to continue to dump over 4 tons of coal ash per day into Lake Michigan without a permit.

While the re-authorization bill does not reference the S.S. Badger by name, the enumerated qualifications — including that it be nominated for or on the list of National Historic Landmarks — apply to only one vessel, the Badger.  As the Times points out,  Republicans supposedly put an end to special-interest language slipped into bills to benefit projects or employers in their districts when they took control of the House last year.  However, the sponsors of that language, two Republican representatives, Tom Petri of Wisconsin and Bill Huizenga of Michigan, say it is not an earmark because it does not mandate the expenditure of any federal money.

I may not be able to parse the nuance of congressional political speak as to what is or isn’t an earmark, but to me, the James Whitcomb Riley’s adage regarding looking and walking like a duck applies. Here is a piece of legislation that is slipped into a Coast Guard re-authorization bill that only applies to one entity and that would overrule the EPA permitting process. To me, that’s an earmark. The hypocritical argument that it is not an earmark because no federal dollars are expended  does not take into account the cost of cleaning up the 500 tons of coal ash that the Badger dumps each year.

Apparently at least one Senator,  Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, agrees with me. The Times quoted him as saying:

“If it walks like an earmark and talks like an earmark, it’s an earmark.”

Hopefully the Senate will stand firm and prevent the S.S. Badger from making a mockery of the EPA permitting process and finally take the steps necessary to either store the 4 tons of coal ash they create each day until it can be offloaded or convert to diesel power as have it’s competitors. No business should be protected from competition and allowed to continually pollute the Great Lakes because of it’s historic nature. We didn’t know better, or have better options than coal when the S.S. Badger first sailed on Lake Michigan. We know better now.

Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing and scuttles the offensive language.


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.