I read a story in the Chicago Tribune a couple of weeks ago that many of the readers of Ludington's best news source, The Ludington Torch, might be interested in. It was about the carferry. I found it on the net and reprint it here (complete with Lake Express Ads, ho, ho) I like the Badger and have rode it a while back with fond memories, so I also include a more optimistic article for those who love that ship I also found after it.
On Lake Michigan, a coal-burning steamship gets a pass
SS Badger dumps about 4 tons of coal ash a day, more than all other big Great Lakes ships combined
October 01, 2011|By Michael Hawthorne, Tribune reporter
MANITOWOC, Wis. — — Built in the 1950s for the brawny task of ferrying railroad cars, the last coal-burning steamship on the Great Lakes is billed today as a nostalgic vacation shortcut between Wisconsin and Michigan.
But every day it sails between this old shipbuilding port and Ludington, Mich., the Badger dumps nearly 4 tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan — waste concentrated with arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxic metals. During its spring-to-fall season, federal records show, the amount far exceeds the coal, iron and limestone waste jettisoned by all 125 other big ships on the Great Lakes combined.
Decades into efforts to clean up the world's largest source of fresh surface water, the Badger's routine dumping is so unusual that, in 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave its owners four years to find a solution. At the time, they vowed to either overhaul the aging coal burner or store the ash for safe disposal onshore.
As the last season before the EPA's deadline comes to an end, the owners instead are seeking an exemption from the federal Clean Water Act that would delay a fix until at least 2017.
By then, the Badger's owners and backers say, the 410-foot ferry might be fueled by cleaner-burning natural gas, a first for a U.S. ship that big. They say such an upgrade would eliminate the ship's noxious coal smoke and murky discharges, making it the "greenest" commercial vessel on the Great Lakes.
If the EPA allows the ash dumping to continue, it will be the Badger's latest pass from environmental laws that other ships, including a competing car ferry that runs between Milwaukee and Muskegon, Mich., have complied with for years.
To buy more time for the Badger's two massive steam engines, supporters have organized a public relations campaign that casts the ship as a small-town operation struggling to preserve a maritime icon. They portray the EPA as overzealous bureaucrats threatening 250 full-time and seasonal jobs and millions of tourism dollars in two Midwest cities hit hard by manufacturing plant closings and cutbacks.
Local officials in Manitowoc and Ludington also are tapping into Republican efforts in Congress to scuttle environmental regulations as they lobby lawmakers to secure another reprieve for the Badger.
"The EPA should pick on bigger fish than this," said Ludington Mayor John Henderson. "There are a lot of other environmental issues that deserve more attention than a historic ferry that happens to dump a few pounds of ash into the lake."
Based on the Badger's 134-day operating schedule, the ship discharges about 509 tons of coal ash into the water each year. By contrast, freighters that ply all five Great Lakes collectively dump about 89 tons of coal, limestone and iron waste into the lake annually, according to Coast Guard records.
Coal ash pollution drew national attention in 2008 after a holding pond ruptured at a Kingston, Tenn., power plant and fouled an Ohio River tributary. Since then, the EPA has been mulling more stringent rules to ensure safe disposal of the toxic waste, which the agency says poses "significant public health concerns."
A spokeswoman in the EPA's Chicago office said the agency has been discussing a new permit with the Badger's owners. No decisions have been made.
Officials with the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Service, the company that owns the Badger, declined to be interviewed but said in an email response to questions that they had spent $250,000 studying ways to comply with the Clean Water Act.
"We wish every element of our lives could be totally green," the company wrote in one of its newsletters. "There are no off-the-shelf solutions, and the EPA recognized that there was no practical way to eliminate the discharge immediately." In other public statements, company officials have said the ship's coal ash is "as harmless as sand."
"Finding a safe, feasible and environmentally-friendly option with natural gas is very important to our company," Lynda Matson, the Badger's vice president for customer service and marketing, said in a recent update posted on the SS Badger website.
Two things stand out when riding on the Badger: It is considerably larger than other passenger ships on Lake Michigan — on a recent afternoon one vehicle on board was a wide-load tractor-trailer carrying silo-sized tanks for Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, Mich. — and its thick, black smoke is full of ash flakes that settle on the deck.
During the four-hour cruise, crew members sell snacks, show movies and organize bingo games. Many passengers read books on the ferry's glass-enclosed aft deck amid the dull rumble of its 7,000-horsepower engines.
"I would hate to lose the convenience of travel and the thrill of days gone by," said Barbara Bennett, a retired autoworker who lives part time in Ludington. "It's a piece of history, but they should make it a cleaner ship."
The Badger's pollution is a byproduct of technology that already was becoming obsolete when the ferry was built. By the time it started carrying freight cars for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1953, dozens of other coal-burning ships were being retired or converted to cleaner-burning diesel fuel.
Newspaper clippings dating to the mid-1960s show the Badger's air and water pollution became a festering problem well before the current anti-EPA fervor in Washington.
People frequently complained about coal smoke wafting into Manitowoc and Ludington and "black, viscous liquid" being discharged into the water. Gaylord Nelson, the late Wisconsin senator who founded Earth Day in 1970, pushed to eliminate ship pollution on the lakes, focusing his efforts in part on the Badger.
When the C&O moved to abandon its Lake Michigan ferries in the late 1970s, railroad officials testified that traffic had declined so much that the operations no longer were profitable. Moreover, they said, coal smoke from the ships violated federal and state air quality laws and the company had decided it would cost too much to install pollution controls.
Investors who saved the Badger from the scrap yard in the 1980s won special exemptions from Michigan and Wisconsin air quality laws that kept the ferry's coal smoke legal while other polluters cleaned up. The current owners later rejected state aid to convert the Badger to diesel, telling the Ludington Daily News in 2001 that they wanted to run the business "without governmental assistance."
More recently, the Badger's owners have been competing with the diesel-powered Lake Express ferry for business and government help. The Badger opposed $17.5 million in federal loan guarantees that kick-started the Milwaukee-to-Muskegon service in 2004; last year, the Lake Express lobbied against a $14 million federal stimulus grant the Badger sought unsuccessfully to covert the older ship to diesel.
The Badger's supporters suggest the latest plan to convert to natural gas is the only way to preserve the ferry's role in promoting tourism around Manitowoc and Ludington. Company officials commissioned a study that estimated the ship draws about $35 million a year to both communities.
Local businesses have chipped in to raise awareness about the debate. In Ludington, the Jamesport Brewing Co. started serving Badger Brown ale during the summer at its downtown pub, with a dollar from every pint sold donated to the S.O.S. Badger campaign.
"I tell people it's like one of our factories: The Badger means jobs and economic development," said Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels. "The owners are trying to convert to something cleaner, but it's not something that can happen overnight."
However, questions remain about the proposed new fuel source, as natural gas traditionally hasn't been used to power ships. And critics say the Badger's owners already have had plenty of time to fix its pollution problems.
"All of the other ferries and ships that ply the Great Lakes have found ways to comply with our modern environmental laws," said Lyman Welch, water quality program manager for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "This is a glaring exception."
Thanks Marty, very good thread imho. But, I can't view the video for some snafu reason. Getting to the story, the Chitown journalist that wrote this article has some points, and also some valid faults. He is prejudiced against the Badger, while I, like other Ludingtonians, are prejudiced for the Badger. There should be a mutually agreeable solution that will fit and make sailing across our harbors viable and futuristic I would surely hope. His "glaring perception is clouded by EPA and liberal motives" I would venture to say. Therefore, I cast it aside for the most part. And ask that the LMC service find the solution, that I expect in the short run, to be finding an alternative dump site upland for coal ash. The one thing to remember is that all this coal ash has NOT harmed the public, nor wiped our beaches out over a 100 year period or more of sailing in these conditions by coal-fired carferries dating to the late 1800's. So, what's the hurry for a scare tactic that does not serve anyone but the elite that want everything industrial stopped according to EPA rules? I have to wonder, what are Michael Hawthorne's motives?, and whom are his friends?, certainly not the people affected by such a shutdown of industry and tourism in our two ports, that's for sure. I VOTE Swim, not sink, and I hope you guys would too. Thanks.
I thought this might get feathers in a fluster up your way. The video works for me, I got a Hungry Howie's ad followed by the face of Lee Van Ameyde ot TV 13 news. Hungry Howie and Lee. You know your in West Michigan when you see those two things together.
The video mentions somes ecret plan set for the carferry next year. If you can get the link under it you'll see the same.
I wouldn't doubt if Lake Express started the ball rolling on this issue. Like Aquaman says there is no evidence of damage done by the coal ash. As this is the only ferry in the World that burns coal I can't understand the rush to get the Badger to comply. Politics is the name of the game here.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on October 16, 2011 at 12:41am
I sincerely hope the SS Badger does continue to run and keep its coal-power on board.
But, I looked up that 2001 article and it has the spokesman for the carferry, and perennial Ludington Bored of Ethics member, Thom Hawley glad that they didn't receive $1.2 in government funds because the carferry didn't need it. An early salvo on the unfairness of the government assisting the Lake Express project. Great.
Three to four years later, they rightly vocally complained when the Lake Express got millions in government loans (likely forgiven after a time, as is the manner of corporate welfare). The Lake Express, surprisingly has held its own since, and that was unfair to the Badger who survived as a true business.
The EPA changed its vision and cracked down on the Badger's dumping of coal. Again, unfairness to the Badger via the Federal Government, and they were given four years to figure things out (until the end of 2012).
Last year, the Ludington City Government decided to be the vessel for applying for special Federal grants to help the Badger switch to Diesel from coal. Much more than what the Lake Express got in loans. City Hall couldn't help but take a substantial cut of the eventual profits of the Badger if the grant was approved, and they decided to not have any assistance from Manitowoc City Hall, or either Madison or Lansing Capitols in their request (those agencies would likely want their cut too ?!) This avenue was denied, and the Lake Express people and most everyone else, could not but help notice that Lake Michigan Carferry had become hypocritical from their 2004/2005 stances.
The SOS Badger effort this spring and early summer (its been dead for a couple months), a so-called grassroots awareness effort with the intention of saving the Badger, was little more than an effort by the two cities to bring the subject public. Unfortunately, with no other goals and an assuredly non-grassroots membership of the same City Officials who took part in the grant fiasco, this effort may have actually spurred a contra-Badger movement as expressed in the Chicago paper above.
Environmentalists (who are mostly liberal) and those who are fiscally conservatives who want a hands-off approach to public assistance to companies, can have good arguments for ending the coal ash dumping and government involvement, respectively. Those who have never enjoyed riding on the Badger, which is a vast majority of Americans, may be energized from such an awareness.
If their secret plan is to depend on government and their concept of fairness, forget it. LMC, I hope you go back to your 2001 ideals.
I looked at and bookmarked the SOS Badger site you mentioned here to verify its activity yesterday. It was inactive but it was THERE. Today I checked it out and its gone. Another one of those coincidences that seem to follow you, X?
When the government forces a company to change 100 years of business as usual then the government should help the company if needed.The Badgers owners were existing without the help of government, now they will be forced out of business by the government.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on October 17, 2011 at 7:52pm
Life isn't fair, and then Big Government comes around and makes it even less so. -- XLFD
Today's LDN editorial acknowledged the recent Chi-Tri article on the Badger Marty brought to our attention and rightly took it to task on many aspects they presented. It spent about 28 column inches on it, but Willy's two sentences summed it up better, I think. Congrats Marty on passing that information to us up here in the wilderness where coal-burning is king.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on October 18, 2011 at 1:12am
It was the "In our opinion" editorial, which didn't make it on the E-edition. I'll try to scan it for you if I can get the paper and the scanner in the same location. Editor Begnoche may just be peeking in on our Torch, and he might like the extra exposure ; )
