The days of unbiased reporting ended long ago. The article should mention that a single traditional fever thermometer has more mercury, the primary contaminant, than decades of coal ash discharge from the Badger would.
It's at such small levels that they can't even read the presence of it with scientific instruments.
The Chicago Tribune has a picture of the Badger with black smoke coming out of its stack. The first sentence of the article says:
"The last coal-powered steamship on the Great Lakes will be allowed to dump toxic pollution into Lake Michigan for another two years under an agreement announced today by federal officials."
Here is a link to the article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-badger-ferry-to-stop-dumping-ash-in-lake-michigan-20130322,0,7611577.story
While they now have 2 more years to operate as they have been (disposing the coal ash into the lake) they have now signed a consent decree that gives them a drop-dead to stop dumping the ash into the water, and these agreements always have stiff automatic penalties if they don't follow thru. Previously the ferry owner said that they looked for ways to contain the ash (which is mixed with lake water to flush it out of the boiler compartment) but could find no feasible way to capture and store it on board. It will be interesting to see now what they come up with.
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