Spirit Lake Environmental Cleanup Continues Under GLRI

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Steel Corporation (USS) have partnered to clean up impacted sediment and soil in the Spirit Lake area of the St. Louis River in Duluth, Minnesota south of Morgan Park. The cleanup began in Fall 2020 and will continue through 2023.

Work Activities in 2023

Alert
Notice

The site is NOT open to the public. For everyone’s safety, please stay off the site, trails, railroad tracks and shorelines. Construction equipment and planting teams will be working at the site until the project is completed in late 2023.

Starting in spring and continuing through fall of 2023, habitat restoration planting will occur in upland and in-water portions of the site.
Topsoil and clay will be placed on the CDFs and they will be planted with native upland species in 2023. In total, 138 acres of habitat will be restored.
Construction of the recreational features, including the pedestrian trail, will be completed in fall of 2023. Railroad and pedestrian bridges are being constructed where Unnamed Creek meets the Shallow Sheltered Bay and where Wire Mill Pond meets the St. Louis
River.

Cleanup Progress as of October 2022

Dredging

360,000 cubic yards of impacted sediment has been removed from the in-water work areas
52,000 cubic yards of impacted sediment/soil has been removed from the upstream Unnamed Creek work areas

Capping

Approximately 80 acres of in-water work areas and 11 acres of the upstream Unnamed Creek work areas have been covered with a clean multi-layer remedial cap

Enhanced Natural Recovery

12 acres in-water have been covered with a thin layer of clean sand to accelerate natural recovery processes in the sediment.