We recently posted about the SS Badger, a 410-foot long coal-fired passenger and vehicle ferry operating in Lake Michigan and the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. Her supporters call her a national treasure, while to her detractors, consider the vessel to be an environmental menace. Since 2008, the vessel has been operating operating on an EPA waiver that allows it to continue dumping 4 tons of toxic coal ash daily into the lake. That waiver runs out on December 19, 2012. Her supporters managed to insert language in a US Coast Guard funding bill to allow the Badger to continue dumping ash for the life of the ship. Last week that language was stricken from the draft bill, which passed the on Wednesday. Unless the EPA grants another waiver, the SS Badger may stop operations in a week.

SS Badger suffers setback