The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is an artificial waterway on the southwest shore of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

, in

East Chicago, Indiana East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census. The city is home of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing ac ...

, which connects the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan. It consists of two branch

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...

s, the 1.25 mile (2 km) Lake George Branch and the 2 mile (3 km) long Grand Calumet River Branch which join to form the main Indiana Harbor Canal. The canal also functions as a

harbor A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

(Indiana Harbor). The outer harbor is sheltered by two bulkheads marked by lights including the Indiana Harbor East Breakwater Light. Ships enter the outer harbor from the north. The inner harbor consists of the canal itself. The entrance to the outer harbor lies near Indiana Shoals, which extend up to 5 miles offshore, where water depths are as shallow as 15 feet. In 2002, Indiana Harbor was the 45th busiest harbor in the United States, handling almost 13,300,000

short ton The short ton (symbol tn) is a measurement unit equal to . It is commonly used in the United States, where it is known simply as a ton, although the term is ambiguous, the single word being variously used for short, long, and metric ton. The var ...

s (12,000,000 metric tons) of cargo. Foreign trade accounted for only 500,000 short tons (450,000 metric tons) of that. Indiana Harbor is maintained by the Chicago District of the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

, as authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1913.

History

The canal and harbor were built over several years beginning in 1901. On March 26, 1901,

Inland Steel Company The Inland Steel Company was an American steel company active in 1893–1998. Its history as an independent firm thus spanned much of the 20th century. It was headquartered in Chicago at the landmark Inland Steel Building. Inland Steel was an ...

accepted an offer from the Lake Michigan Land Company of 50

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s (200,000 m²) (20

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...

s) of free land along with a promise of construction of a harbor and railroad. For its part, Inland Steel agreed to construct a steel mill there that would cost no less than one million dollars. The shortline railway connecting this area to other rail lines is still known as the

Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is a Class III railroadSurface Transportation BoardThe Belt Railway Company of Chicago -- Trackage Rights Exemption -- Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Company January 9, 2002 in the United States. Ownership The IHB ...

. Marktown,

Clayton Mark Clayton Mark (June 30, 1858 – July 7, 1936), one of the pioneer makers of steel pipe in the United States, was an industrialist in the Chicago area who founded the Mark Manufacturing Company in 1888, a firm for the fabrication and sale of water-w ...

's planned worker community, is located at Indiana Harbor.

Economy

Manufacturing

Indiana Harbor and Canal lies in a heavily industrial area which includes

Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the largest f ...

two Indiana Harbor Works facilities. On the west side of the canal is the former Youngstown - J & L -

LTV Steel Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was a large American conglomerate which existed from 1961 to 2000. At its peak, it was involved in aerospace, airlines, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, meat packing, car rentals, and pharmaceuticals, a ...

- ISG steel mill. On the east side of the canal is the other Indiana Harbor Works, once known as

, then Ispat Inland. BP's refinery in Whiting is nearby. The harbor allows transport of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

ore (

taconite Taconite () is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing (over 15% iron) sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate. The name "taconyte" was coined by Horace Vaughn Winchell (1865–1923) � ...

pellets) and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

to the steel mills from the mines and quarries of the upper Midwest through the Great Lakes. Other commodities include coke, gypsum, steel, cement and concrete, petroleum products, and miscellaneous bulk products.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District (April, 2009).
Indiana Harbor.pdf"
. Retrieved April 16, 2009. The harbor is ranked first in tonnage among the 25 federal commercial harbors on Lake Michigan, and second in tonnage of the 55 Federal commercial harbors on the Great Lakes.

Environmental issues

Ninety percent of the water which passes through the Canal originates as industrial outflow or stormwater overflow. Historic contamination by

polychlorinated biphenyl Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, Toxic Substances Contro ...

s (PCBs),

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...

s (PAHs) and

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as ...

has put the canal under the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

's Grand Calumet River Area of Concern (AoC)—the only AoC to be listed impaired in all 14 beneficial use categories. Because of this sediment contamination, no

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

has taken place in the harbor since 1972, when the USEPA determined the previous sediment disposal method of open water disposal in Lake Michigan to be unacceptable. Lacking any alternative disposal location, the harbor and canal have accumulated a backlog of approximately of sediment, which hinders deep draft commercial navigation.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District
Indiana Harbor and Canal Dredging and Disposal Activities.
Retrieved April 20, 2008. Shipping capacity has been reduced by 15%, increasing shipping costs. The contaminated sediment also leads to further pollution of Lake Michigan, as sediments containing 67,000 pounds (30,000 kg) of

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hard ...

, 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

, and 420 pounds (190 kg) of PCBs reach the lake each year through the waterway.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District and U.S. EPA (January, 1999).
"Indiana Harbor and Canal Maintenance Dredging and Disposal Activities Comprehensive Management Plan - Final Feasibility Report"
. Retrieved October 4, 2009. The Chicago District of the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

, in partnership with the East Chicago Waterway Management District, initiated plans for a dredging and disposal project for sediment at the harbor in the 1990s. The nearby site of a former Energy Cooperative, Inc. (ECI) refinery, which is also an open USEPA

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. , , ''et seq., ...

(RCRA) site, was selected as the location for a confined disposal facility (CDF) to safely contain the contaminated sediment.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District
Indiana Harbor and Canal Dredging and Disposal Project F.A.Q.
. Retrieved April 20, 2008. Despite some local

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justi ...

concerns over the close proximity of the CDF to two low-income public schools, construction of the facility began in spring 2002. Dredging activities were set to begin upon completion of the CDF, and planned to be carried out over a period of 10 years to finally return the harbor to its authorized dredge depths, with an additional 20 years of maintenance dredging to remove future accumulated sediments. The total cost of the project was originally estimated at $180 million.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District
USACE-Chicago District IHC Confined Disposal Facility and Federal Navigation Project
. Retrieved April 16, 2009. Dredging did not, however, commence until 2012, fully forty years after the canal was last dredged. Phase 1 dredging was completed in November 2020. Construction of Phase 2 began in July 2021 and is expected to continue until November 2023.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Indiana Harbor, U.S. Army Corps of EngineersDredging ProjectHarbor light
East Chicago, Indiana Canals in Indiana Ports and harbors of Indiana Transportation buildings and structures in Lake County, Indiana