The canal and harbor were built over several years beginning in 1901. On March 26, 1901, Inland Steel Company accepted an offer from the Lake Michigan Land Company of 50 acres 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. Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community, is located at Indiana Harbor.
Economy
Manufacturing
Indiana Harbor and Canal lies in a heavily industrial area which includes ArcelorMittal Steel's two Indiana Harbor Works facilities. On the west side of the canal is the former Youngstown - J & L - LTV Steel - ISG steel mill. On the east side of the canal is the other Indiana Harbor Works, once known as Inland Steel Company, then Ispat Inland. BP's refinery in Whiting is nearby. The harbor allows transport of iron ore and limestone 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. 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 biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals has put the canal under the EPA's Grand Calumet River Area of Concern —the only AoC to be listed impaired in all 14 beneficial use categories. Because of this sediment contamination, no dredging 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. 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 of chromium, 100,000 pounds of lead, and 420 pounds of PCBs reach the lake each year through the waterway. The Chicago District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 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. refinery, which is also an open USEPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act site, was selected as the location for a confined disposal facility to safely contain the contaminated sediment. Despite some local environmental justice concerns over the close proximity of the CDF to two low-income public schools, construction of the facility began in spring 2002. Dredging activities are set to begin upon completion of the CDF, and are 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 is estimated at $180 million.
