Americas News
EPA Allow U.S. Coal Ferry to Keep Running
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached an agreement with the owner of the coal-fired S.S. Badger, which operates on the Great Lakes, allowing the ship to continue operations but requiring it to eliminate coal ash discharge by the end of its 2014 season.
The EPA decree also requires the car ferry's owner, Lake Michigan Carferry Service Inc., to pay a $25,000 civil penalty for violating mercury water quality standards in 2012, and the company must reduce its discharge of ash this year and next.
"This consent decree offers the fastest and most certain path available to EPA to stop the discharge of coal ash from the Badger into Lake Michigan," said EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman.
"The enforcement agreement reduces the discharge of coal ash more quickly and with greater oversight than would occur during the appeal of a decision to issue or deny a permit - a process that often takes several years."
In December, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a budget amendment that could have kept the EPA from applying pollution controls to the ship.
"The resolution of this issue has taken far longer than we had hoped, but the end result has been worth the effort," Bob Manglitz, president and CEO of Lake Michigan Carferry, told the Detroit Free Press.
"This agreement will save the jobs of our 200 plus employees as well as many other jobs in the states of Michigan and Wisconsin."
