Journal Sentinel Provides Long SS Badger/Coal Ash Story
The Journal Sentinel lays out many of the issues surrounding the SS Badger's coal ash dumping practices - - a Lake Michigan pollution issue covered repeatedly on this blog.
Back to 2009.
The coal-fired steamer's operator has delayed switching to a cleaner burning operation, and now risks its continuing service because a long-standing EPA order to cease the daily dumping of tons of coal ash is about to kick in.
The SS Badger is the last of the coal-burning ships on the Great Lakes; cleaner fuels, such as natural gas are available alternatives.
And coal ash can be contained on board, then disposed of on shore, too.
We'll know soon if the operator can win another extension.
7 comments:
it's a pretty big lake and the amount of coal ash dumped into it is totally insignificant. Coal is a naturally occurring substance made from vegetation and when burned results in no different products than natural decomposition of plant matter. Another non-issue
Actually, coal ash breaks down into harmless chemicals much quicker when diluted in water which is a universal solvent. It is less environmentally sound to dump it on land where besides breaking down much slower it also takes up growing space which can be used for better purposes.
If coal ash is harmless, why is the DNR likely to fine We Energies for the bluff collapse that dumped coal ash into Lake Michigan? In fact, why was a clean-up undertaken?
And if natural materials are good for you, why are nicotine and arsenic nuggets on the menu?
20 years of dumping by the current group x 500 tons minimum per year x 2,000 pounds per ton = 20,000,000 pounds of coal ash. I don't know where you come from, but where I live, 20 million pounds of anything is significant. Especially so when it's loaded with mercury and heavy metals. At that level, it's not quaint, it's willful criminal activity.
Ny calculations would result in 1 pound of coal ash per 1,221,732 gallons per year, which is quickly broken down. There is many times more atmospheric dust which enters the lake than is dumped by the ferry, which provides a valuable service.
Yet, this blog nor the other liberal wisconsin blogs will write about Tom Barrett's MMSD continuing to dump human waste into Lake Michigan. Democrats being responsible for pollution? No sir, no sir. Only Republicans pollute.
For one thing, stick to the subject.
For another, it is not Tom Barrett's MMSD: It is a regional body.
For another, the MMSD operates under a permit, and has reduced pollution many fold over the years, with some years going without an overflow - - which are caused by storms.
The Badger pollutes through choice.
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