Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal
Encyclopedia : I : IN : IND : Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal
The 'Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is an artificial waterway in East Chicago, Indiana which connects the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan. It consists of two branch canals, 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 Indiana Harbor Canal also functions as a harbor and runs 1.4 miles (2 km) before reaching the Indiana Harbor which connects to Lake Michigan. In 2002, Indiana Harbor was the 45th busiest harbor in the United States, handling almost 13,300,000 short tons (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 not a state-managed harbor.
It lies in a heavily industrial area which includes the U.S. Steel plant as well as an oil refinery and numerous other industries. The canal and harbor were built over several years beginning in 1901. The harbor allows transport of iron ore (taconite pellets) and limestone to the steel mills from the mines and quarries of the upper Midwest through the Great Lakes. On March 26, 1901, Inland Steel Company accepted an offer from the Lake Michigan Land Company of 50 acres (200,000 m²) (20 hectares) of free land along with a promise of contruction 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 is called the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad.
Ninety percent of the water which passes through it originates as industrial outflow or stormwater overflow. Due to contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycylclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals, it is part of the EPA's Grand Calumet Area of Concern (AOC) which is the only AOC to be listed impaired in all 14 categories. The EPA estimates that sediments containing 77,000 pounds (35,000 kg) of chromium, 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of lead, and 420 pounds (190 kg) of PCBs reach Lake Michigan each year through the waterway. Several dredging projects are planned to remove contaminated silt with the first scheduled to begin in 2005.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.