Spirit Lake Great Lakes Legacy Act Cleanup
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Cleanup Status and Progress
EPA and the United States Steel Corporation entered into a partnership to clean up impacted sediment and soil within the Spirit Lake area of the St. Louis River in Duluth, Minnesota. This work is being conducted by contractors as part of the Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) project agreement between EPA and U.S. Steel. The site is located within the St. Louis River Area of Concern and is south of the Morgan Park neighborhood in Duluth. The site has in-water cleanup areas which included Spirit Lake, Unnamed Creek, and Wire Mill Pond as well as onshore clean up areas.
The purpose of the project is to address chemical constituents of concern, primarily polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and associated heavy metals including lead, copper and zinc in the Spirit Lake area. The large environmental cleanup includes dredging, capping and monitoring impacted sediment. The GLLA project has been ongoing since October 2020 with cleanup work and habitat restoration continuing through fall 2024. The cleanup will support the eventual delisting of the St. Louis River AOC and will benefit people and the ecological system.
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2023 Activities
Activities planned for 2023.
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2022 Activities
Activities completed in 2022.
Documents
- Kiosk Update (pdf)
- Spirit Lake Fact Sheet, October 2022 (pdf)
- Biden Administration and EPA Announce $113M to fund Great Lakes Restoration Projects near Duluth, Minnesota
- Spirit Lake Project Update: May 19, 2022 Public Meeting (pdf)