Burning a fire in the city limits, without a special permit, and with the LFD sleeping on the job again.

[AQUAMAN]

The Ludington Boat Club, with it's exemptions to local taxes, law, policies by the COL, and other MI. State laws, has again done an act which is not only against local ordinances, (no open fire in the city limits), but illegal per DNR/EPA laws, and still operates without any penalties or fines, just because they have COL officials and friends as members. Reference the illegal fire of the LDN article yesterday, where LFD officials had to Douse the illegal fire, where they were burning 150 year old bottom lumber, just dredged up via Town's crane, with huge plumes of black and gray smoke into the PM Lake area. Absolutely no consideration for the law, nor the public in the area that had to put up with this smokey pollution. The DNR requires ALL this dredging material to be examined, dried out for a year, and be duly disposed of in a legal and proper manner. LFD Chief Funk declared the fire illegal, and Doused it upon notification. But, did he make a threat of punishment/penalty of heavy fines for such conduct? Did he warn them of future fires as such? Did he bring the LPD into the equation, with more threats and such? I really doubt it, because Jerry boy has a lot of friends down there, and they, are also not going to be in contempt, like so many others in the area would be if they did the same act.

[XLFD]

Aquaman, I had problem opening your attachment, so I put up the photo and caption from the newspaper scanned.

 

Local ordinances prohibit this burning: 

Sec 22-67 Ludington City Code:  "Open burning shall be allowed without prior notification to the code official for recreational fires, highway safety flares, smudge pots and similar occupational needs. In the event that any recreational fire shall become a nuisance by reason of smoke or flying embers, or if it shall pose any danger to persons or property, the fire chief or his designee or any police officer of the City of Ludington, may order such fire extinguished, and in the event that the owner, occupant or person responsible for such fire shall fail to extinguish such fire, such failure shall constitute a municipal civil infraction. Notice that a fire is a nuisance or poses a danger may be verbal and need not be in writing, nor shall other notice requirements provided in the fire prevention code be applicable to such circumstance. The fire chief or his designee or any police officer of the City is further authorized to extinguish any recreational fire that is a nuisance."

 

As to whether the Chief wrote up a municipal civil infraction or referred the matter to the DNR, I highly doubt it.  Our City's executive officers, Mayor and City manager, have shown over and over again, that they care little for the public health and safety since at least 2007. 

 

The Yacht Club is prepping for the Queen's Cup, so was this an attempt to get rid of this stuff before next week?

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for the help, and kind regards for the pics., lest some others be in the same contempt if we were also caught and reported for such behavior. Oh well, said someone out there. Just another thang, right? According to the pic. we see quite a "Large Fire Going On HERE!" Doushing isn't the word Methinks at all! And it's toxic waste type lumber that we have here, not fresh-cut type. And to think, some members that are liberal should also take note, and make it their agenda NOT to let this happen again, imho.

[AQUAMAN]

EyE, I again see your comments and questions as simpleton minded, with no prior local experience and first hand knowledge of our area. If you lived here during the 50's-70's, you would know that the PM Lake has many contaminants from the Dow Chemical Co., freighters of all sorts, carferrys, coal companies, as well as mounds of silt on the bottom. The lumber I refer to is from the 1800's and early 1900's, from the timbering era in Buttersville. Buttersville was a town unto itself, it's located on that peninsula across the channel from Ludington to the south and west via South Lakeshore Drive. You could and still can get this kind of history at the archives in the Ludington Library, if you so desire. I'm not really in the business of being a history teacher, esp. when I don't get paid for it, lol. Consider today's lesson a freebie, but tomorrow, I may just charge a case of beer, plus a bucket of chicken, lmao. Btw, don't ask me to explain why Jerry Funk, LFD Chief, does his job with such disregard and uninformed ways, he's probably watching this thread, and should answer for such acts himself. I doubt he really knows the dif. though.

[AQUAMAN]

Sorry Eye, I missed your earlier inquiry. Personally, I don't know all those answers. The DEQ might have some interesting tidbits on this however. The main thing is that these dredge spoils need to be carefully taken to labs. for proper testing and determinations of toxins. There is a lot of ancient history in the lake that no one knows for sure about before anyone even cared. That is why we test today, to get new information that can reveal what happened before our time. For me, I like Lk. Mich. or a pool to swim in. Some few people still do swim in the PM Lk., but I don't. I also tend to agree with X's analogies of this situation. 

[XLFD]

Eye, I don't know when the last time samples were taken from the Yacht Club area or the results therefrom, but one could expect that these wooden pilings and planks were pulled out during the recent dredging of the Yacht Clubs dock areas, thus within the silt screen they had a soup of sediments likely tainted by the various things Aquaman mentions and other things coming down from the bayou that we know has high levels of some contaminants. 

I agree that due to the high level of the Yacht Club's friends in our City's kakistocracy, this infraction will be treated a lot less seriously than if some of the Yacht Club's neighbors did the same thing.  You'd probably have the DEQ, police and DNR responding than just a couple of firefighters who douse it, and a fire chief who understands politics-- and his role in it.

[AQUAMAN]

Well said X, but don't confuse the LYC, Ludington Yacht Club, with the LBC, Ludington Boat Club, two totally different, but similar, organizations here. They are both in the PM Lake, but across the channel from one another, just fyi. Their similarities though are familiar, no taxes, no rules, no ethics either. Just go for the gusto! And see if anyone notices, and to those that do, they usually have connections at City Hall anyhow, so it's dubious and contrary to good ole boy favors to just look the other way, right?

[XLFD]

Thanks for that correction on Clubs, I accidentally interchanged their names without meaning to. 

[XLFD]

I can primarily just answer that by saying that it's likely indeterminable without testing.  Dowland and Lake Streets have been the site of a lot of industrial action, and the ground is contaminated in a lot of places, even as far up as James Street.  Likewise, there is some underground drainage conduit that feed into the PM Lake in the area.  This area would have also seen a lot of runoff from tainted areas (like 428 E Dowland)  during 2008. 

As long as the boats aren't dragging on the bottom, the effect on the bottom is likely minimal, and that doesn't look like it happens very often due to the ship size and water depths common in that area. 

Burning the material in that area gives you the potential for cross contamination through ashes floating through the air settling on nearby landmarks or lakemarks, and the potentials for a wide variety of poisonous gases being created.  A lot of the pollutants in the area are various organic compounds, arsenic, and mercury, and I could see any conscientious person being concerned if they saw a fire and had to worry about these materials in their gaseous forms invading their airspace.  Particularly, when the laws appear to be not equally enforced for such issues.

[Willy]

Regarding the dredging activity. I noticed that much of the dredged material from the City Marina is being dumped in the west parking lot and much of the water run off is flowing into the the yards of the residential homes adjacent to the lot. If that material has contaminents and I were one of the property owners, I definately would not want that water soaking into my yard.

[XLFD]

I saw that too.  I have been researching the history of the municipal marina, and there is a potential that the area there may have some environmental issues too.  I think I'll check that out via the City and the State, because I know for a fact, that following environmental protocol is not a priority for this City Manager.

[AQUAMAN]

Sorry for being absent on this thread for a while. Yes X, that is what I was referring to. The gaseous smoke, plumes of it all over the air, and the related ashes also drifting in the area. The winds that day were also quite brisk, so the contaminated lumber, being freely burned in vast quantities, a pile about 6' high x 20' long or so, is what disturbed me most. Being there is a specific COL ordinance against just such fires in the city limits, lead me to question the reason it was being done, and how they could possibly think they could get away with it. Esp. since it was broad daylight, throughout most of the daylight hours. This fire wasn't discovered or reported until late afternoon, before is was extinguished. From what I heard, they got the bulk of it burned illegally too. And no enforcement/tickets/punishments have been reported to my knowledge either. The other factor is that when any dredging is at hand, that ALL the materials have to dry out for a period of time, be inspected by the DEQ, then taken upland for proper and legal disposal. We obviously have laws to protect us all from this sort of behavior, and as you can clearly see now, they are selectively enforced and reported, according to how many friends you might have at city hall.