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 Bethlehem Steel 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 steelmaking 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, which 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 he says 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.

Mounds of Muck

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 steelmaking process. Another load would fill in an abandoned channel that once was 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. And some would also be shipped down the Chesapeake Bay for disposal in a designated area of the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach.

“A toxic grenade”

A public hearing in late February drew a crowd, with supporters touting the project as a needed boost to a community that still hasn’t fully recovered from the steel mill’s demise, while others expressed a variety of concerns.

“We want the terminal as well, but we want the dredging done cleanly,” said Keith Taylor, president of the Sparrows Point North Point Historical Society. Taylor said he worked at Bethlehem Steel for years and knows what’s buried along Coke Point. He called it “a toxic grenade.”

Linwood Jackson, who lives in Turner Station across Bear Creek from Sparrows Point, said he worked at the mill, too, and recalled that “we threw everything in the water.” The creek bottom across from Turner Point is so contaminated that it is a Superfund cleanup site, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to dredge some of the bottom and cover some with clean sand.

Before terminal dredging goes forward, Jackson says there needs to be more studies and consultation with residents of his historic African American community, which he said has suffered from the mill’s pollution for decades.

Sampling by Tradepoint Atlantic of the Coke Point shipping channel found that nearly 90% of the sediment to be dredged was clean enough for “beneficial reuse” as fill dirt or some type of building material.

Only about 10% is so contaminated that it requires permanent burial in a capped landfill, the consultant reported. None of the spots sampled were so toxic that the sediment needed special treatment as hazardous waste.

Environmental activists voiced another concern.

They worry the dredging will use up limited space for disposal of dredged material from Baltimore’s harbor. Instead, they prefer placing the cleaner sediment from the harbor back in the water to cover up contamination in the bottom around Coke Point.

That would reduce risks of toxic metals and chemicals in the muck from getting back into the water. There already are longstanding warnings to limit consumption of some fish and crabs from the river because of contamination.

“Basically, [Tradepoint Atlantic] is planning to use valuable state resources to advance its own interests despite the fact that they could be handling their own dredged material on-site,” said Alice Volpitta, the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper. The port already faces a dredge disposal “capacity crisis,” she said, and “this additional placement would put a huge strain” on the existing disposal facilities.

There is enough room left at the port administration’s dredge disposal sites in Masonville Cove and Cox Creek to accommodate perhaps six years’ worth of maintenance dredging of harbor shipping channels, according to figures supplied by Bob Munroe, the port administration’s deputy executive director.

The port administration, which tries to maintain 20 years’ worth of disposal capacity, has agreed to take 1.25 million cubic yards from the terminal dredging, which would seem a squeeze. But Munroe noted that both disposal sites are being expanded in the next few years. Also, a facility is planned to recycle some of that dredged material for reuse.

“At this point in time, we believe there is capacity available,” Munroe said.

Facing Eviction

The issue generating the most heat at the public hearing, though, had to do with the terminal project’s impact on people – specifically, two yacht clubs with historic ties to Sparrows Point and other neighboring boaters and waterfront property owners.

To satisfy federal and state requirements to offset the filling of the coal pier channel, the joint venture plans to excavate 19 acres of land along the Jones Creek side of Sparrows Point, converting it to open water and wetlands. That would evict the North Point and Pleasant yacht clubs, a pair of modest private marinas founded decades ago by Bethlehem Steel workers.

Residents across Jones Creek worry that the excavation would remove some spits of land that jut into the creek and protect their boats and property from high winds and waves.

The presence of two yacht clubs side by side is a relic of racial segregation. In the early 1950s, Bethlehem Steel helped a group of white steelworkers build a pier on Jones Creek to replace some docks they had been using. That became the North Point Yacht Club.

Black steelworkers could not join, though. So several years later they formed their own club and persuaded the company to lease them a patch of land next door for $1 a year. That became the Pleasant Yacht Club.

Johnnie Mathis, one of its founding members, recalls that Bethelehem provided some materials, but wouldn’t help them build their pier. Instead, club members did it themselves, then moved a damaged bungalow to the site and fixed it up as their clubhouse.

Now 97, Mathis still frequents the club.

The two clubs, with about 190 members combined, have grown closer over the years. Each regularly hosts boating and social events for the surrounding community.

Andrew West, the North Point Club’s commodore, said that he, like almost everyone else, welcomes the terminal. But he questioned the need to replace the water being filled in at the coal pier, noting that sampling there found little life in the contaminated sediment.

He suggested other types of mitigation could be performed elsewhere, such as replenishing oyster reefs. With the members’ limited resources, he warned, evicting the clubs could spell their demise.

Tradepoint’s Tomarchio acknowledged that the company could have proposed another place or way to mitigate. But he said it’s cheaper to excavate along Jones Creek because the company owns the property.

While acknowledging the yacht clubs’ historic ties to the community’s steel-making legacy, he noted they have had free use of the land for years, knowing the company could take it back some day.

Asked if the company might help them relocate, he said, “We’re thinking about it.”

“We understand there’s a lot of money to be made,” said Vicki Joyner, a Pleasant Yacht Club regular. “I understand we’re the little people on the totem pole, but I would like for them to take the time and see if there are other options rather than eliminating both of those clubs.”

A final decision is expected to come later this year.

• This story was originally published in the Bay Journal.