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The National Park Service has reopened the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk unit of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This decision is based on preliminary test results that did not indicate any known hazardous substances in the discharge that first appeared in the Burns Waterway on November 28, 2018. That discharge has now ended.
The closure had been in effect since November 30, 2018 as a precaution to protect the health and safety of park visitors until the nature of the discharge into the waterway just east of Portage Lakefront could be determined. National lakeshore staff worked closely with IDEM and US Steel during the investigation.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is one of 418 units of the National Park System ranging from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty. Located in Northwest Indiana, the park includes 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 15,000 acres of biodiverse beaches, woods, prairies, and marshes. Up to 2 million visitors come to the Indiana Dunes each year.
Last updated: December 6, 2018