Things sink in the Great Lakes. There are thousands of shipwrecks at the bottom of the Great Lakes. And two more ships have been added to that count recently, fortunately without casualties: a tug boat, and a 110 foot dredge carrying 1500 to 2000 gallons of diesel fuel...the tug boat was carrying 300 gallons.
I've been reading the articles and I'm unsure if the dredge...also referred to as a tanker in some articles....was shipping diesel or if it was just the massive fuel tank for the dredge itself. Not that it exactly matters...the fuel leaked into Lake Huron for several days.
No one was injured when the dredge and an accompanying tugboat went down, but fuel leaked from the vessel most of the day, creating a large oil sheen on the water's surface.
....and because of the massive fumes coming off of the lake from three miles out....
Residents living near the spill are advised to stay indoors, close their windows and turn off their air conditioning units. All county beaches are closed.
It's events like this that conflict me.
I'm a huge fan of shipping on the Great Lakes...dredging is important to that...and shipping on the Great Lakes gives Michigan the opportunity to ship goods worldwide.
But I'm also very much in love with the Great Lakes and their environmental protection.
I want the jobs and industry that puts my friends and families to work and creates innovations here. And at the same time I want to keep our Lakes clean and ecologically healthy.
Call me nuts, but I still believe these two things can be reconciled. I believe we can have cleaner ways of doing business. And that in the end, it's going to be better for us economically, and ecologically.