This was written by John Flesher for the Associated Press:
On one level, it’s a straightforward case of a business seeking a government permit to discharge wastewater.
But when the Environmental Protection Agency rules shortly on whether to let the S.S. Badger car ferry continue dumping ash into Lake Michigan, it will be a milestone in a decades-old effort to keep afloat the last coal-fired steamship operating on U.S. waters. It will also stoke a nasty feud that has extended from social media to Congress.
EPA is expected to announce a tentative decision in March on a request from Lake Michigan Carferry Inc., owner of the 410-foot Badger, which hauls about 100,000 passengers and 30,000 vehicles across the lake between May and October. EPA ordered the company in 2008 to stop dumping the ash slurry and granted a four-year grace period – which expired in December – to find another disposal method or fuel source.
The company says it’s looking at a switch to liquefied natural gas or an onboard ash storage system but needs more time. So unless regulators give in, the Badger may be grounded, although the company is publicly optimistic it will get its permit.
The ferry “is looking forward to providing great experiences for our customers in 2013 and many years to come,” spokeswoman Terri Brown said Tuesday, adding that its sailing season will begin a couple weeks early this year to handle a cargo of wind turbines.
As the EPA has weighed the application, more than 6,000 unsolicited calls and letters have rolled in – a remarkable display of interest in a single vessel when dozens of large cargo ships and thousands of pleasure boats traverse the Great Lakes…
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