SS Badger’s Engine Breaks Down on First Voyage of Final Year

Mariners can be superstitious.  Within sight of the dock in Manitowoc, WI on the first voyage of what will likely be the last navigation season for the vessel’s controversial coal-burning engines, the SS Badger carferry broke down with its passengers and their vehicles aboard.  Numerous news reports and an interview with a member of the ship’s crew seemed to indicate the vessel had actually run aground.  All passengers were reported to be safe, if inconvenienced, by the ships grounding and the mechanical failure that led to the ship falling short of its intended destination. 

Tugs were called in to rescue the ship so she could reach the dock, disembark the passengers and vehicles, and make repairs to the aging, 58 year old converted rail car ferry’s engine in hopes of a better return voyage to its home port of Ludington, MI.  The ferry was scheduled to return to Michigan yesterday evening, but that voyage has been postponed until at least Saturday while crews are desperately trying to make repairs to the ship’s more than half-century old duel “Skinner Uniflow” engines.  There were no reports of the findings of any investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard about the exact cause of the ship’s grounding.

A member of the SS Badger’s crew indicated that shoaling and the lack of dredging funds may have played a role in the ship’s failure to reach the dock and running aground. Senior chief engineer Charles Cart told reporters at the scene that the boat ran into sediment that often builds up in Great Lakes harbors during the winter.  He also indicated that a problem with a piston reduced the boat’s engine power, and hampered efforts to free it from the shoal. A tugboat finally freed the SS Badger, allowing passengers and their vehicles to leave. 

The lack of Great Lakes dredging funds may have played a role in the grounding of the SS Badger, supporting the maritime industry’s claim that the dredging issue has reached crisis proportions.  Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Administrator Terry Johnson publicly called for the Obama Administration and Congress to address the crisis just over a week before he was fired by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  Some speculate that Johnson’s whistle-blowing over the harbor maintenance crisis may have been the most proximate cause for his being terminated by the administration, hoping that it would silence his voice on the issue.    

Whatever the cause, the SS Badger’s failure to reach the dock has snarled the Memorial Day weekend plans of hundreds of families who were thinking about traveling across the Lake over the long weekend. Some families hoping to travel to western Michigan vacation spots for the weekend were hoping to get tickets on the Lake Express high-speed ferry which ferries passengers and vehicles from Milwaukee to Muskegon rather than the unpleasant prospect of facing highway traffic in the Chicagoland area and Northwest Indiana.    

Surely, the owners of the SS Badger, Lake Michigan Carferry LLC (LMC) had hoped for a less ominous opening to their 2012 navigation season.  The coal-burning ship has been under fire by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a number of environmental organizations for the ships current practice of dumping nearly 4 tons of coal ash directly into Lake Michigan every day it operates.  LMC admits that the coal ash contains mercury, lead and other chemicals known to be toxic.  The EPA told the SS Badger’s owners in 2008 that this practice would have to stop and the final deadline for the coal ash dumping comes in December of this year.  Earlier this week LMC filed a petition for yet another lengthy extension for permission to continue dumping coal ash into the Lake.    

Ancient mariners used to capture seabirds to examine their entrails to foretell the prospects of their sea voyages.  Who knows what an examination of the entrails of the gulls flying above the sooty stack of the SS Badger might yield?  

Port of Monroe, Michigan Seeks Port Director

The Monroe Port Commission is now accepting resumes of experienced transportation professionals to fill the full-time position of Port Director at the Port of Monroe, in Monroe, Michigan.

The position will provide a challenging opportunity for an aggressive professional to manage, develop and execute strategic action plans for the Seaport of Monroe, Monroe-Custer Airport and the Industrial Properties operated under the oversight jurisdiction of the Monroe Port Commission. 

Located on Lake Erie and bisected by the River Raisin, the Port of Monroe is Michigan’s only Port on Lake Erie. It is located 35 miles south of Detroit, Michigan and 17 miles north of Toledo, OH.

For more information about the Port of Monroe or about the position, please refer to the Port of Monroe website www.portofmonroe.com . 

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years experience in executive management at a major U.S. commercial seaport (Great Lakes Port would be a plus) with operations, cargo development and marketing responsibilities.   A Bachelor’s Degree is required.  Other qualifications that would enhance a candidate’s appeal would include:  strategic planning, fiscal management, team-oriented management style, grant writing and grant administration experience, public speaking, and media relations skills. The position provides the opportunity for the appointed Director to be a creative port developer, as well as an astute and effective port manager. 

Compensation

The compensation package for the successful candidate will be reflective of industry standards for comparably situated ports and scope of the Director’s responsibilities.  (American Association of Port Authorities Salary data will be utilized).  A employment agreement will be offered along with arrangements and timing for taking the position.  The employee agreement will be reviewed annually with the Director for extension and salary adjustment.   

Contact

Dale H. Brose, Vice-Chair Strategic Business Development, PORT OF MONROE, PO Box 585, Monroe, Michigan 48161-0585; Tele. 734 241-6480;  E-mail: dale.brose@portofmonroe.com

Great Lakes Voters Hold the Keys Again in 2012

Regular readers of Great Lakes-Seaway Newsare well-aware of the fact that Great Lakes voters hold the keys to control of the White House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.  They have held these keys for some years now and played a large role in the Republican Party’s takeover of the House and increase in numbers in the Senate in 2010.  President Obama’s sweep of the eight Great Lakes states propelled him to his commanding win over John McCain in 2008.  President George W. Bush’s wins over Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 would not have happened were it not for the voters of Indiana and Ohio.

This year, Great Lakes voters again sit at the center of the U.S. political universe. 

Current opinion polling would suggest that the 2012 presidential election is shaping up to be potentially very close.  The voters of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will likely determine the outcome of the race for the White House.  Professional political analysts have a hard time coming up with scenarios in which either candidate loses four of those five and comes away the victor.

Two Republican governorships are on the line in 2012.  In Indiana, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) is considered to be the heavy favorite to succeed Governor Mitch Daniels (R), who is term-limited.  In Wisconsin, public employee unions have forced a recall election on Governor Scott Walker (R), only the third such election forced on a sitting Governor in U.S. history.  After a hard-fought Democratic primary, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett (D) will face Walker in a rematch of the 2010 race which Walker won by a six percentage point margin.  Current polling in Wisconsin shows a similar margin now trending in Walker’s favor with the election scheduled for June 5.

The Great Lakes states have 16 U.S. Senators and for the second election cycle in a row, seven of them are on the line this year.  The Democrats have to defend their seats in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota.  The GOP will have to defend only the Indiana senate seat where State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) recently defeated six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) in the GOP primary held earlier this month.

Barring some unforeseen circumstances, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) should cruise to victory in November.  Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) all currently enjoy double-digit leads over their GOP rivals, but should expect their races to tighten up considerably once voters begin to focus after Labor Day.

The hottest Senate races in the Great Lakes region will be in Wisconsin and Indiana. In Wisconsin likely GOP nominee, former Governor and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson (R) enjoys about a six-point polling advantage over presumptive Democratic Party nominee Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).  In Indiana, polling conducted immediately after Mourdock’s trouncing of the iconic Lugar shows a dead heat with Rep. Joe Donnelly.  Look for Mourdock to open up a lead in the weeks to come, but the race could remain tight.

Of the six seats gained by the GOP senate minority ranks in 2010, four of those came in Pennsylvania (Toomey), Indiana (Coates), Illinois (Kirk) and Wisconsin (Johnson).  The Republicans also retained the seat of retiring Sen. George Voinovich (Portman).

In terms of the races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, there is more action in the Great Lakes region than there is room in this column.  We'll explore some of those key races in future editions of Great Lakes-Seaway News.

In 2012 it is likely that political analysts will say, once again, as the Great Lakes region goes, so goes the nation.             

New York Steps Back on Ballast Water Rules Again

As regular readers of Great Lakes-Seaway News will know, last February, the State of New York announced that it was backing away from onerous, and technologically unsupportable ballast water regulations promulgated by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) that would have effectively closed New York's ports and some of all of the ports of eight other states to most shipping.  Those rules were to apply to ships calling at New York ports and ships simply making innocent passages through New York waters, threatening commerce in New York, New Jersey and the seven other states that border the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Province of Ontario.  

At that time, that the state reversed itself, and NYDEC announced that the compliance deadlines in its regulations would be extended until December 19, 2013 – the date upon which the regulations were scheduled to sunset on their own.  The net effect was that all regulatory requirements were eliminated.

While this news was welcome, it also raised the rather obvious question, "What happens after December 19, 2013?"  The answer to that question has now been revealed.

NYDEC has now published its proposed ballast water rules for the period beginning on December 19, 2013 and running through December 19, 2017. 

The proposed rulemaking makes it clear that the State of New York has chosen to embrace rules similar to those recently put forward by the U.S. Coast Guard.  Likewise, it appears the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will adopt similar rules by no later than November of this year.  In addition to the Coast Guard/EPA rules, the State of New York is also planning to include a provision requiring ocean vessel operators to continue to conduct deep sea ocean ballast water exchange, something that the St. Lawrence Seaway System has required since the mid-1990's.

While it took far too much time and effort on the part of industry, it would seem that New York, under Governor Andrew Cuomo's leadership now understands that real and workable environmental protection regualtions are more valuable than ideologically-driven empty gestures.

Michigan Lawmakers To Get a Lump of Coal in Their Stocking

A press notice sent out earlier this morning by the Michigan-based environmental organization, Stop Dumping Coal indicates that Michigan legislators willl be receiving post cards in the mail today with "a free sample" of a small lump of coal, with coal ash, to show the "gifts to Michigan" that the SS Badger will start dumping into Lake Michigan this Thursday when the coal-fired car ferry begins its 2012 navigation season.  The organization quantifies the amount of coal ash being dumped into Lake Michigan at 8,000 pounds per day, when the SS Badger is in operation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has indicated that 2012 will be the last year that the EPA will allow the SS Badger to dump coal ash, which contains lead, mercury, arsenic and selenium directly into Lake Michigan.  The owners of the SS Badger, privately-held Lake Michigan Carferry LLC have hired lobbyists and pursued a number of different strategies to try to get yet another extension from the EPA.  None of those strategies has been successful this year.

In addition to the coal and postcard mailing to Michigan state legislators, the group is also urging citizens to sign a petition to federal and state regulators to put final stop to the practice of dumping coal ash directly into Lake Michigan.  The group's petition appeal says:

"For nearly 50 years, SS Badger officials have promised to stop dumping coal in Lake Michigan--someday.  Meanwhile, they have continually sought special favors so they can continue to ignore state laws which ban dumping in our Great Lakes.  Now they want another 5 years to continue toxic coal dumping in Lake Michigan.

Someday has finally arrived.  60 years of dumping coal is enough. Join the conversation. let's tell state and federal regulators that the SS Badger has to follow the same clean water laws as the rest of us. lets tell the SS Badger to Stop Dumping Coal in our Great Lakes.  Learn more at:  StopDumpingCoal.org"