The final vessel has departed with coal from the Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior, bringing a half-century of major fossil fuel transshipment on the Twin Ports waterfront to an official close.
The 1,000-foot bulk carrier Walter J. McCarthy Jr. passed beneath the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge on Friday night, Nov. 6, to take on the terminal's concluding cargo. She departed mid-evening Saturday, Nov. 7, for the lower lakes.
The Midwest Energy Resources Company facility was built in 1976 and served for decades as the largest coal transshipment hub on the Great Lakes, moving low-sulfur Powder River Basin coal arriving by rail onto lake freighters bound for utilities on the lower Great Lakes.
Detroit-based DTE Energy let its waterfront property lease expire amid retirements of regional coal plants. The closure will eliminate roughly 60 jobs, and city and port leaders are now searching for new industrial tenants for the 250-acre site.
