Pillar Industries invest in Gary

JAPAN-BASED NIPPON Steel Corporation purchased U.S. Steel this month. In 1906, U.S. Steel founded the city of Gary with its Gary Works operation. That plant is expected to stay open and continue using the U.S. Steel brand name.

Part 7 of 10

As Gary Methodist Hospital entered its second century in 2023, President and CEO Matt Doyle declared, “We will remain in the city of Gary for the next 100 years.”  The hospital is not the only pillar institution that is casting down its bucket where it is now.  The city’s founder, the United States Steel Corporation, recently invested $60 million to produce 500,000 tons of pig iron annually and American Water is rolling out plans to replace lead water pipes and to spread the replacement cost equitably.

Along with Doyle’s commitment for Methodist Hospital to stay in Gary, there is a legal agreement that would make abandoning The Steel City a surgical nightmare. The agreement is the result of a suit filed in the 1970s by then-Mayor Richard Hatcher and others. (see Black Hospitals Die, How Does Gary’s Remain Alive.) A recent gift from United States Steel will support the hospital’s Vision Fund, which was established to ensure equitable health care for all those in need, now and in the future.

United States Steel founded the city 117 years ago, in 1906, and built what would become the largest steel plant in the world.  Japan-based Nippon Steel Corporation purchased U.S. Steel this month. U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt says Nippon plans to continue all of U.S. Steel’s steelmaking and mining operations in the United States and keep operating all its assets. It will also keep the U.S. Steel brand name.

As the largest integrated mill in North America, the Gary Works plant will supply pig iron to the three billion-dollar Big River Steel mini-mill in Osceola, Arkansas. The Big River plant will in-turn supply Detroit-based General Motors with Verdex steel, a new sustainable steel product.

Integrated mills such as Gary Works make steel from scratch using blast furnaces to burn iron ore, limestone, and coke to make iron, which is turned into steel. The number of integrated mills along with their traditional blast furnaces have fallen dramatically in the United States as the number of mini-mills, such as the Big River mini-mill, continue to grow.

Verdex is helping to revolutionize the steel industry. It is manufactured with up to 75 percent fewer emissions compared to traditional blast furnace production, is made with up to 90-percent-recycled content, and is endlessly recyclable without degradation.

According to the Northwest Indiana Times, high-strength steel, such as that made with blast furnaces, protects drivers and passengers in accidents, resists corrosion, and meets other performance standards.  This “is one of the reasons steelmakers haven’t abandoned integrated steelmaking in places” like Gary in favor of lower-cost and less unionized mini-mill steels, reports The Times.

Even with newer mini-mills, Gary Works remains U. S. Steel’s largest manufacturing plant with about 4,000 employees. The Pittsburgh based corporations also has plants across the United States and one in Slovakia.

Massive losses of capital and population are experiences Gary; Flint, Michigan; and Jackson, Mississippi share along with having a majority economically-challenged Black population. One stark difference, however, between the cities is that Gary’s water system is privately owned and its service area reaches beyond Gary to include a multi-racial, economically diverse region.  Flint’s and Jackson’s water systems are city run and basically serve their respective cities.

According to Joe Loughmiller, External Affairs Manager for Indiana American Water, the company uses “two water treatment facilities to treat this water—one is located in Gary and a second treatment facility is located in Ogden Dunes along the lakeshore. Both of these system feed into the distribution system that serves the area.”

Indiana American Water, owned by New Jersey-based American Water, is replacing lead pipes in Gary in a humane way. Records show the company has up to 50,748 lead service lines running from distribution mains to customer meters, of which approximately 65 percent are in Northwest Indiana, primarily Gary.

If homeowners independently hired contractors to swap out their lead service line (LSL), they would have to pay between $4,000 and $5,500 each. However, the cost of the work will be borne by all customers. The replacements, which ultimately could total $177 million, will be recovered through standard rate adjustments, according to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

Loughmiller told Port of Harlem, “Our approach recognizes the societal cost of replacing LSLs, which tend to be in older, less affluent areas.”  The company also expects the collective effort will lower the cost to approximately $3,500 to replace each customer-owned water line.

The plan to spread out the cost so that everyone pays, including people who don’t have lead lines, started in 2016. To remove what is considered the private side of the lead service line, which runs from the public way to the home, Indiana America Water had to get Indiana lawmakers to grant them the authority. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission unanimously approved the water company’s plan that was first in the state to take advantage of a 2017 law aimed at eliminating potentially dangerous lead pipes from water service.

In addition to creating a more equitable lead pipe removal plan, Indiana American Water purchased the abandoned Jefferson Elementary School, demolished it, and built an $8 million disinfection treatment facility at its Borman Park water treatment plant in the City Built on Sand. The project has allowed the company to switch from using chlorine gas at the facility to a much safer liquid form of chlorine known as sodium hypochlorite to disinfect water during the treatment process. The new treatment facility and was placed online in June 2022.

Gary’s location at the southern-most point on Lake Michigan, which holds approximately 20% of the world’s surface freshwater, however, does not guarantee that it will have plenty of clean water in the future.  With the drought-ridden West facing climate change, massive fires, and shrinking water supplies, activist and author Dave Dempsey and others are battling any plans to pipe Lake Michigan water to other parts of the world.  His concern prompted his book, “Great Lakes for Sale.”

Also combating the commodification of Lake Michigan water into a product like oil, gas, or corn is The Great Lakes Compact.  The Compact is an agreement between eight states and two Canadian provinces, restricting withdrawals from the Great Lakes. For instance, to protect the availability of water, Indiana and the seven other Great Lakes states had to approve Milwaukee’s request to pipe Lake Michigan water 20 miles inland to Waukesha, Wisconsin.

On Gary’s traditionally industrial eastern lakeshore, Fulcrum’s Biorefinery Centerpoint plans to become the Steel City’s newest pillar industry by 2026 after the California based clean energy company invests $800 million in a plant that will turn tons of biomass and household garbage into 31 million gallons of aviation fuel. According to Fulcrum, the airline industry is hoping that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will contribute between 53 and 71 percent of the emissions reductions needed to meet its goal and limit pollution. The plant on the old Lehigh Cement Plant site at Buffington Harbor will create about 200 permanent jobs.

The company considers the old plant an asset. “The Gary site has a lot of good infrastructure that was left behind,” said Allen Castro, Fulcrum vice president for development in the U.S. and overseas. The Gary 411 News added that during a tour of the site, Castro added, “Institutionally, we loved Gary because it is logistically well connected to residential sources. It has great transportation routes.”

Next: Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are: Renovating IN Gary, IN – Climate Change May Be a Plus for Gary.

Gary native Wayne Young is the publisher of Port of Harlem magazine. Founded by Young in 1995, the magazine is inclusive, diverse, and Pan-African. He is also president of the Port of Harlem Gambian Education Partnership, which funds and manages small projects centering around culture, education, and community in the West African nation. He recently repurposed his parents’ home in Gary into a short-term rental.