(MI) Detroit Free Press – The Environmental Protection Agency has given Lake Michigan Carferry, owner of the SS Badger, until 2012 to change its practices — a deadline the company says it will meet. The Badger hauls people and vehicles between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wis.

The Badger’s crew mixes coal ash waste with water and dumps the slurry into Lake Michigan during each trip. “It’s been tested. It’s inert, benign. Sand is all it really is. It’s really not a harmful pollutant,” said the ship’s chief engineer Chuck Cort. More