Baltimore Seeks to Open New Port, Dredging at Issue

 Bay Journal, Dredging plan for new ship terminal near Baltimore stirs mixed feelings

Plans to develop a new container ship terminal at Sparrows Point on the outskirts of Baltimore’s harbor are stirring up mixed feelings in a community that’s still living with the toxic legacy of more than a century of steel manufacturing there.

The proposed shipping terminal itself enjoys widespread support. It would bring thousands of jobs back to Sparrows Point, where 30,000 people once worked before the struggling Bethlehem Steel mill went bankrupt more than 20 years ago. Under a new owner, the steel mill closed permanently in 2012.

But some residents worry that the proposal to deepen and widen the shipping channel to accommodate the massive container vessels will dredge up toxic contaminants from steel making, still buried in the bottom of the Patapsco River. Others worry about the developers’ plan for disposing of the dredged-up muck and how it could impact recreational boating and waterfront neighborhoods.

For the project, Tradepoint Atlantic, the company that took over the 3,300-acre industrial site, has partnered with the Geneva-based subsidiary of MSC, the world’s largest shipping line. They plan to put the terminal at Coke Point, a 330-acre peninsula at the southwest tip of Sparrows Point, where coal was once cooked at high temperatures for steel production.

Aaron Tomarchio, Tradepoint Atlantic’s executive vice president, called the project the next step in its decade-long effort to clean up and revitalize Sparrows Point, which has already brought back 13,000 jobs, many in distribution centers. He said the $1 billion “state of the art” terminal would make Baltimore the third biggest East Coast hub for container shipping. That would boost Maryland’s economically vital port, which is still recovering from a loss of business when the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse temporarily shut down the harbor.

To make room for huge container ships, the developers have applied for federal and state permits to dredge 4.2 million cubic yards of sediment from the old Coke Point shipping channel, which is currently used to unload somewhat smaller vessels carrying bulk cargo and imported vehicles.

That’s a lot of muck to get rid of. The partners made a bid in 2024 to put it all on nearby Hart-Miller Island, which had been created out of material dredged from the harbor bottom. But they dropped that amid fierce pushback from local residents and birders.

Now, the partners plan to put the dredged material in four different places. Some would go into an old impoundment on Sparrows Point that used to hold treated wastewater from the steel-making process. Another load would fill in an abandoned channel that ships once used to bring coal to the steel mill.

The rest would go offsite. Some would be placed in one of two diked containment facilities south of Baltimore, maintained by the Maryland Port Administration for disposal of sediment dredged from the harbor. Finally, some would also be shipped down the Chesapeake Bay for disposal in a designated area of the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach.

It sounds like they have a workable plan to dispose of the bad dirt (and it is dirty, trust me). There's no satisfying every body (NIMBY!) , but Baltimore needs the business and the jobs.