Polluted Bayou

[XLFD]

If you haven't heard of the contamination down at the Pere Marquette Lake Bayou (that body of water primarily between the Washington Street Bridge and Madison Street) you are probably new to the Ludington Torch and to the one-sided discussion going on down at the Ludington City Hall. 

Back at the first January meeting of the city council I brought up the pollution, getting cut off while describing it and had it ignored by officials who may have still been recovering from New Year's celebrations.  But that didn't seem to be the case, for the city-sanctioned DEQ study describing the taint was brought up at the next two meetings and subsequently ignored by a council more intent on passing a resolution to contest recently passed state law forbidding them to issue propaganda with taxpayer money before an election.  Or by trying to rezone another possibly contaminated area.

So in order to get a wider audience to the problems, I coaxed singer Linda Ronstadt out of her retirement  to do a cover that may allow others to become acquainted with a problem that is right here in the center of town, and which may point to why our county had the highest rate by far in having elevated levels of lead in our kids' blood back in 2013, the year that area was disturbed greatly by reconstructing the bridge.

POLLUTED BAYOU

I feel so bad as if I lost my mind
I can't focus at any time
Since I had a swim in the slime
Polluted Bayou

Slaked in nickel, slaked in lead
Wading in just up to my head
Water's fine, city manager said
Polluted Bayou

I'm gonna hack some phloem
Just like them
Polluted Bayou
Where the folks grow sick
Human wastes are thick,
Polluted Bayou

Where those fishing boats
With their keels a-coat
With zinc and mercury
That familiar old smell
Raw sewage, hell
From the drains I see.

Gonna be exposed once again
Gonna be with carcinogens
Camp in an oxygen tent
Polluted Bayou

Slaked in nickel, slaked in lead
Wading in just up to my head
Water's fine, city manager said
Polluted Bayou

I'm gonna hack some phloem
Just like them
Polluted Bayou
Where the folks grow sick
And the weeds are thick,
Polluted Bayou
Where those fishing boats
With their keels a-coat
With zinc and mercury
That familiar old smell
Raw sewage, hell
From the drains I see.

[Instrumental Interlude]

Oh, that boy of mine
In the grime
Where Silver and

Hydrocarbon lie
Oh, some sad day
Gonna eat away
His entire inside
Well 
He'll never rebound
Taint's not just in the ground
Polluted Bayou

[jfc123]

Depends on what it says and if you have permission from the property owner. Private owners you have a chance, the 10-15 feet the col owns down by Madison don't bother unless you have the permission of one of the two owners east or west. The col property there is minimal. Inbox me any ideas.

[stump]

What would this sign say? "Caution" this area is a chemical waste site, do not go near or in the water because of a high concentration deadly chemicals left here by the city of ludington. For more information call John Shay

[jfc123]

Another idea I cant get out of my head, to sitting by the dock of the bay.....

Sitting on a dock at the bayou,

watching the terds floating by you

Sitting on the docks closed by Shay

Watching waste and slime all day

[XLFD]

Sounds like the germ of a good idea, get the proper meter, do the full song, and you've got yourself a winner.  I find it's greatly therapeutic when dealing with these guys to occasionally lighten the mood with doing a creative spoof at their expense whether by music or meme, plus it's often more effective in getting the point across than always putting out an article loaded with supportive facts and figures.  The end hope is that people will look at the meme or the altered musical lyrics and wonder what it's all about, then check out the less entertaining but appropriate articles on the topics.

Remember, when you joust with these guys at the head of our fair city that they aren't taking you seriously, so you have occasionally got to do the same with them to maintain your wits.

[AQUAMAN]

There is no sanity nor maintaining wits with Shyster Shay III or CA Wilson. These people live under rocks, way below us, and normal citizens can't reach that low brow mentality. Simple as that. SCUM BAGS!!!

[jfc123]

So as I always do in the car since I became an old man I listen to AM radio. Where I live it is am950 which is my news radio of choice. Funny thing happened today while listening to a story. They were talking about ice fisher people need their shanty off the ice by a certain date. Well if they don't have them off and it falls through the ice the DRN fines them $500 plus cost of removing the shanty from the water, interesting. A city can discharge without a waste water permit since 2011 and not clean up discharges of a road and several RAW sewage discharges into the PM Bayou? Why does the DNR not go after real criminal activity like this and focus on the small offender? The COL should be fined, forced to clean up and make amends to all affected by this, and it should be lead (no pun intended) by the DNR! This is a darn shame! Its funny that the state only goes after the constituents and not the real offenders! Guess 57 lawyers would be a costly challenge, but mainly to the city taxpayers, not the council! DNR, EPA, State of MI, and Federal Government, you all know that there is fault here , get it fixed before it snowballs into a Flint!

[XLFD]

The City can have repeated discharges of their sewer system dumping tons of raw sewage into the bayou and negatively affecting the private marinas trying to eke out a living , but if you go down to the city marina and crap into their pond because their supposedly public bathrooms are off-limits to the public, see what happens to you.

Perhaps the reason why the state DEQ and DNR don't go after their fellow public body is due to professional courtesy.  Lest we forget, the Michigan Waterway Commission is a board of the DNR that was instrumental in getting the two public marinas funded and into Ludington, and instrumental in looking the other way when they violate the agreements between them. 

[stump]

I remember a friend that lived in Grand Haven wore a T-Shirt that read ""ANOTHER SHITY DAY IN GRAND HAVEN" because someone wouldn't fix the treatment plant so they just let the sewage overflow into the Grand River. You could actually see turds floating by.. Sounds like Ludington but the turds are on the council.