There's a barge out in the middle of Muskegon Lake filled with sand. I was down that way on Friday when I took my boy to the candy store after school, telling him he could get $2 worth of candy. After a half hour of dithering he eventually settled on a gummi pizza, a jelly fruit slice (lemon) and Superman ice cream of the Hudsonville, MI brand. I can't exactly describe the flavor of Superman ice cream. It's more of a color than a flavor.

Anyway...just behind the candy store is a marina with the dock for the Lake Express cross lake ferry for traversing Lake Michigan, and just beyond the marina is Muskegon Lake. And in Muskegon Lake...a barge, filled with sand.

Sand.

It took me a bit to figure it out....after a century and a half of industrial dumping in our beautiful lake, the Federal government is investing 12 million dollars to clean it up, courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency. Keep in mind, if our conservative brethren have their way, West Michigan Congressman Bill Huizenga included, we'd be leaving this lake polluted and we'd be helpless to stop more industry from dumping more nasty stuff into it.

This is going to be awesome for the health of people living here, for the wildlife and for the safe edibility of the fish we pull out of there. And it's going to be a great thing for Muskegon's tourism.