Port of Indiana

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Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor
BurnsHarbor Harborlake view.jpg
Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor as seen from Lake Michigan
Port of Indiana
Location
Coordinates 41°38′38″N87°09′18″W / 41.644°N 87.155°W / 41.644; -87.155
Statistics
Website
http://www.portsofindiana.com/

Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor is an active maritime port owned by the State of Indiana. The state legislature created the Indiana Port Commission in 1961 to research and act upon opening maritime ports on Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline as well as the Ohio River. [1]

Contents

Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor opened in 1970 and is located on Lake Michigan at the intersection of U.S. Route 12 and Indiana State Road 249. [2] The primary work done in the adjacent area is the manufacturing of steel at steel mills, and the roster of port tenants is dominated by steel processing companies, although agricultural and other businesses are present. The port is divided between the municipalities of Burns Harbor and Portage.

Construction of Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor was extremely controversial, with conservationists fighting to preserve a segment of the Indiana Dunes that occupied the site of the future port. [3] [4] [5] The port and its steel mills were constructed on top of what was once the Central Dunes region of the Indiana Dunes and site of some of the hanggliding experiments carried out by a crew led by pioneer aviator Octave Chanute.

Authorization of the Indiana Dunes National Park, which borders Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor on three sides, was part of a political compromise that also involved the construction of the port.

Port economy

Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor, as of 2024, is surrounded by three extensive industrial plants:

Port history

When Bethlehem Steel and advocates for preservation of the Central Dunes crossed swords in Congress in the early 1960s, the steel company won. Two key arguments used by Bethlehem in their successful campaign were increased national security from the production of American steel, and the creation of well-paid jobs in a field that was then dominated by the United Steelworkers union. Two arguments advanced by the people opposed to the project were that the mill could have easily been located directly east of Gary, in a less sensitive and strategic ecological zone, and that large infrastructure projects, which would amount to a tax subsidy, were needed to construct a mill in this area.

Making steel in the Burns Harbor area required support from the federal government because of the shallow waters of Lake Michigan offshore from the sand dunes. In order to make it possible for lake freighters to bring iron ore, coal, and limestone to the steel mills, extensive dredging and engineering work was necessary. This work linked the Little Calumet River to Lake Michigan via Burns Ditch (Portage Burns Waterway).

Congress, as part of the River and Harbor Act of 1965, instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out the necessary work to create and maintain the artificial harbor that would become the Port of Indiana. In line with overall Great Lakes standards, the docking areas are dredged to a depth of at least 27 feet (8 m). The port is protected by 8,230 feet (2,510 m) of steel and rubblemound breakwaters.

In addition to the federal help, the state of Indiana showed its support for the Port of Indiana project by constructing two roads, Indiana 149 and Indiana 249, to serve the new industrial area.

Adjacent recreational use

Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor sits adjacent to the Burns Waterway Small Boat Harbor, a 5,540-foot (1,690 m)-long canal, dredged to a depth of 6 feet (1.8 m), extending inland from Lake Michigan to south of U.S. Highway 12. It is located west of Burns Waterway Harbor, at 41°37′59″N87°10′37″W / 41.633°N 87.177°W / 41.633; -87.177 . This boat harbor provides access to the inland Portage Marina and what was to be Marina Shores, a private, 300-boat marina/condominium complex. The marina is successful, but the housing development failed in the early stages of development. [8]

It is commonly misunderstood that Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor owns the Burns Waterway and harbor, but it is actually maintained by Army Corps of Engineers. As of 2024, the state-owned port is a "restricted area" and the public is not admitted within most of the port area, with the exception of the port office.

Incidents adjacent to the port

In August 2019, ArcelorMittal inadvertently vented elevated levels of ammonia and cyanide from a Burns Harbor blast furnace into the Little Calumet River. Hundreds of fish were killed. A public fishing pier once located at the north end of the port was temporarily closed to the public. [9] In February 2022, Cleveland-Cliffs (which had acquired the mill from ArcelorMittal) agreed to a $3 million settlement based on the incident. [10]

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The Indiana dunes have been a cross road of activity since the glacier receded. Great explorers such as Jacques Marquette and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle traversed this area. As early as 1862, the area was noted for its unique natural resources. At the start of the 20th century, the dunes were a living laboratory for scientist studying plants, animals, and the changes in the land. The first ecologist did his pioneering work here.

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Long Lake is a large interdunal wetland in the Indiana Dunes region of Northwest Indiana. It was originally approximately 8 miles in length, but has been shortened due to development and drainage. It has a surface area of 34 hectares, and a maximum depth of 1.8 meters. There are three small islands, and the total shoreline length is 4.6 kilometers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interdunal wetland</span>

An interdunal wetland, interdunal pond or dune slack is a water-filled depression between coastal sand dunes. It may be formed either by wind erosion or by dunal encroachment on an existing wetland. The wind erosion process involves wind scooping out sufficient sand to reach the water table, and typically occurs behind the first line of foredunes.

Dorothy Richardson Buell (1886–1976) was an American educator and nature preservationist who became the founder and first president of the Save the Dunes Council, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the Indiana dunelands along Lake Michigan. Buell led a grassroots effort to save the remaining unspoiled dunes in northwestern Indiana from industrial development. Buell's sixteen-year leadership of the Save the Dunes Council, from 1952 to 1968, preserved thousands of acres of dunelands at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which she helped to establish in 1966 as an urban park as part of the National Park Service.

References

  1. ↑ Ports of Indiana Historic Timeline (2023). "Ports of Indiana History, 1961" . Retrieved 2024-03-05.
  2. ↑ Ports of Indiana Historic Timeline (2023). "Ports of Indiana History, 1970" . Retrieved 2024-03-05.
  3. ↑ Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2009). The Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation. The South Shore Journal, 3. "South Shore Journal - the Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation". Archived from the original on 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  4. ↑ Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2006). Alice Gray, Dorothy Buell, and Naomi Svihla: Preservationists of Ogden Dunes. The South Shore Journal, 1. "South Shore Journal - Alice Gray, Dorothy Buell, and Naomi Svihla: Preservationists of Ogden Dunes". Archived from the original on 2012-09-13. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  5. ↑ Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2007). The cultural impact of a museum in a small community: The Hour Glass of Ogden Dunes. The South Shore Journal, 2. "South Shore Journal - the Cultural Impact of a Museum in a Small Community: The Hour Glass in Ogden Dunes". Archived from the original on 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  6. ↑ "Gary Works - Midwest Plant". Facilities. U.S. Steel. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Burns Harbor". Cleveland-Cliffs . Retrieved February 17, 2022, not to be confused with Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor works, located in East Chicago.
  8. ↑ Russell, Joyce (May 2, 2012). "Portage evaluates Marina Shores potential". Northwest Indiana Times. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  9. ↑ "ArcelorMittal Says It Has Sampled Water, Seen Improvements Since Fish-Killing Chemical Spill in Indiana". CBS-TV. Portage, Ind. August 18, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  10. ↑ Michael Hawthorne (February 14, 2022). "Indiana steel mill to pay $3 million for toxins into Lake Michigan tributary". Chicago Tribune . Chicago. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
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