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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

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Ludington group defends coal ash dumping car ferry

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 05.24.11 | 11:48 am

Local citizens have formed a group to support the continued operation of the coal-powered car ferry that travels between Ludington and Manitowic, Wisconsin and faces a 2012 Environmental Protection Agency deadline to stop dumping coal ash into Lake Michigan.

The group, Save Our Ship!, is devoted to emphasizing the key role the SS Badger plays in Ludington’s tourism and manufacturing industry, and plans a fundraising auction featuring maritime memorabilia.

“There is a real possibility that the SS Badger may have to cease operations in December 2012, but we are hopeful that the S.O.S. campaign will help demonstrate that our communities need the SS Badger and influence Lake Michigan Carferry and the federal government to come to an acceptable solution to continue operations,” Ludington Mayor John Henderson told the Ludington Daily News.

Operators of the SS Badger acknowledge dumping 3.8 tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan during each day of operation.

Coal ash contains toxic metals that can leach into drinking water and cause cancer, lung disease, kidney disease, mental retardation and respiratory problems, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In 2009 EPA moved to regulate coal slurry from boats under the Clean Water Act but granted the SS Badger an exemption from the environmental rules until 2012.

Comments

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1580611162 Betsy Rose

    These local citizens don’t seem to care much about other people or the environment.  They have nothing to be proud of.  Its 2011 and its time for clean energy.  Duh, wouldn’t it be a better idea to raise funds for a clean energy ferry and name it the SS Badger ll?  The SS Badger is stinking in more ways then one.  This is just so disgusting that anyone would want to keep polluting Lake Michigan which belongs to the people not the local citizens of the SS Badger.  Just shameful.  Where is their conscience and where are their ethics?  What kind of parents did these local citizens have? 

    • Anonymous

      If only it were that easy.  The car ferry in Muskegon received money from the government to get started and continue to run.  Why is it that a continuing company is not given the same opportunuity to use government $ to update the carferry.  I agree that the dumping should stop, but fair is fair, where is their subsidy?

      • Jim Antone

        A bigger subsidy than allowing the SS Badger to operate outside the law?

        This ship has been an environmental nightmare since day one.  In the 1960s it was already under fire for dumping in Lake Michigan.  In fact, the SS Badger’s dumping was one of the inspirations for Michigan’s watercraft pollution control act of 1971.  The law (still in effect) banned coal ash and sewage dumping from ships.  The only reason this issue wasn’t discussed in the 1970s is the owners assured the public they had stopped dumping while the Lake Carrier’s Association tied the law up for nearly a decade in legal challenges..

        http://www.scribd.com/doc/45507306/1971-Great-Lakes-sewage-law-to-be-tested-ships-banned-from-dumping-in-lakes

        If anything, the EPA has been working on the side of the SS Badger by issuing a VGP permit that preempts the Michigan law that LMC had been violating for decades.

        This company’s owners should be in a courtroom over their decades of intentional violation of the clean water act.  Instead they’re out looking for a water pollution waiver to go with their Clean Air Act exemptions.

         

    • Anonymous

      If only it were that easy.  The car ferry in Muskegon received money from the government to get started and continue to run.  Why is it that a continuing company is not given the same opportunuity to use government $ to update the carferry.  I agree that the dumping should stop, but fair is fair, where is their subsidy?

    • Jim Antone

      Not only do the apologists not care, the cities are complicit in the subsidy and cover-up.  In Manitowoc, coal is sold to the ship’s owner at a deep discount off the back of a coal pile paid for by the city-owned utility’s rate payers.

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/32936215/SS-Badger-coal-buying-agreement-with-City-of-Manitowoc-and-Manitowoc-Public-Utility

      Despite resident complaints, the cities continue to offer PR cover (Ludington’s mayor is in the middle of the SOS effort.).  In both Ludington and Manitowoc, residents, boaters and pasengers are routinely coated with coal ash, even before the ship starts dumping offshore.

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/33045149/Manitowoc-Harbor-Commission-09-13-07-Minutes-SS-Badger-Coal-Dust-Complaints

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/32922631/MPU-SS-Badger-coal-ash-complaints-2002-correspondence

       

      • Anonymous

        I swim in Lake MI at Ludington regularly and I have never had coal ash on my person.

        • Anonymous

          Coal ash slurry is not dumped until the ship is several miles away from shore. Sonar soundings of the Lake Michigan bottom show a ridge of coal ash from Ludington to Kewaunee, and also to Manitowoc from a hundred years of carferry operation. 

  • Alex Tollis

    Shut it down.  The ship is ugly, loud, and nothing but an eyesore.  I have been to ludington several times and I wouldn’t be the slightest bit disappointed if the badger was no longer there.

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