U.S. Steel idling Zug Island plant, laying off up to 1,545

[401don]

Well of course they don't have a comment.... because "Pinocchio" told another lie.

Yes, but he finally gave in and took the tariffs off our Canadian steel. We were going to invade and attack with our newer more powerful composite hockey sticks.

[Dumpling]

Looks like I need to stand corrected. "Mingo" is probably more of an
early American English word for "chief" or "Native American". It is
said to derive from a Lenape [[aka Delaware) word. The Lenape are
an East Coast Algonquian family group. However Mingo Logan himself
was Oneida/Cayuga which were subdivisions of the Haudenosaunee [[aka
Iroquois aka Six Nations, based around the Finger Lakes in New York) group. Some things remain unclear to me about how the word "Mingo" originated and was and is used.

[Dumpling]

"Mount Marfork" is graded a little differently these days. There is
a gradual 30 degrees more or less up from the Short Cut Channel
aka the Rouge River. The downslope to inland Zug is more like
45 degrees.

There is a little railroad on Zug known as "DCRR" - Delray Connecting
Rail Road. One small train hauls melted iron in cauldrons from the
blast furnace on Zug to the US Steel mill on the other side of the
Short Cut Channel. Right now there appears to be about four feet
of clearance distance between the Rouge River and the railroad
bridge that carries the cauldron train.

[Dumpling]

This could get interesting. One of the Detroit major news stations
is relaying a prediction that the Rouge River level will rise fourteen
feet, cresting sometime Sunday morning.


https://www.clickondetroit.com/weath...pect-and-when/

Fourteen feet?!

If that is the case probably everything at the south end of
the wastewater treatment plant up to and including Jefferson
Avenue will be under River Rouge floodwater. Depending
on just how high the water is we could park on a Delray side
street then paddle a kayak to the job site. It's running pretty
well for the moment. Most of the equipment is not designed
to run underwater though. It will get shut down until after the
floodwaters recede, the water is all pumped out, and the
equipment is checked for operability.

The Zug DCRR train, pulling "hot metal cars"

[[Lionel version:
http://www.lionel.com/products/bethl...car-8-6-39429/ )

of course wouldn't be running. The railroad bridge over the
Rouge River just north of Jefferson Avenue would also be
either raised or submerged.

[Dumpling]

Well really I was hoping that was an error and "feet" was written
where "inches" was intended...but...looks like I better move the
car to higher ground soon...

https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydr...dtx&gage=detm4

[Danny]

That's pure Michigan folks. You're going to get blown away.

YAY Whitmer!

[Dumpling]

The Rouge River only flooded a little near the Detroit River though
I was not around for the highest stage so it could well have been high
enough to flood the railroad bridges for a few hours in the middle
of a weekend night. But that would have been it. The water level is
still quite high.

During cold snaps in recent winters one of the tall stacks of the
River Rouge coal fired DTE plant would emit a plume of steam
that wasn't usually there on a day to day basis.

This month DTE has gotten by without using that section of its River
Rouge plant - whether that is because it hasn't been polar vortex
strength cold, or they are able to use other resources, is not known.
This plant is supposed to be phased out anyways in about 2022.

This DTE plant is right next to Zug Island.

[Dumpling]

The River Rouge coal fired DTE plant did have a plume of steam from
its tall stack early this morning.

Zug Island is supposed to cease running in April, just a few weeks
away.

[Dumpling]

We are there now. Amid the coronavirus work stoppages it isn't
very noticeable. Here is the Detroit News' portrait of the steel industry on Zug.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...nd/2957131001/

[Richard]

I watched a YouTube video about the little railroad that moved the molten steel from plant to plant that is also shutting down and is or was considered the only rail in the country,that was still in use after 104 years.

[Dumpling]

The grounding of the "Harvest Spirit" was probably worse
than was indicated in the news.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...detroit-river/

Grosse Ile is downriver from the dock at Zug where the
Harvest Spirit would have been loaded with coke from
the coke battery on Zug which seems to still be in
operation. The stated destination for the Harvest
Spirit for this voyage is Thunder Bay - upriver​.
That's the other direction from where the Harvest
Spirit ended up. The visual is of some kind of loss
of power and of control systems and a disabled laker
floating helplessly downriver for some time until
it ran aground. [[Sorry - I am descended from Yoopers
- we probably worry about stuff like this too much!)

[MikeM]

AIS shows a destination of Hamilton, Ont.

[Dexlin]

Since we're turning this into a Detroit River general thread, I was curious if anyone knows why the Sugar Island Dike that comes off the Livingston Channel west dike doesn't connect to Sugar Island? I've tried to find a definitive answers, and can find only vague mentions that it was built as a "compensating" dike, which I guess means it was built to kind of keep the waters higher after they dredged the Livingston Channel.



It would seem to me that it must barely keep the water levels up behind the dike if it's not closed off. But maybe it does more than I realize?

[Danny]

Well the steel beams has finally fallen.

[Richard]

The problem is they fell on a trailer and got moved to Gary where one cities trash became another’s treasure.

[ndavies]

That dyke stops wind driven waves coming in from lake Erie, not water flowing out into lake Erie.

Sugar Island used to be the ship refueling dock, When the GI navy base was operational. It might be a leftover from that.

[Richard]

^ not to go off course,but that in itself is a pretty cool bit of history.

This lists 59 naval attachments in Detroit alone,# 59 shows a navy shore patrol attachment,considering that Detroit was known for bombers,aircraft engines,tanks and trucks the naval aspect seems to have been quite involved.

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/USN-Act/MI.html

[MikeM]

Since we're turning this into a Detroit River general thread, I was curious if anyone knows why the Sugar Island Dike that comes off the Livingston Channel west dike doesn't connect to Sugar Island? I've tried to find a definitive answers, and can find only vague mentions that it was built as a "compensating" dike, which I guess means it was built to kind of keep the waters higher after they dredged the Livingston Channel.



It would seem to me that it must barely keep the water levels up behind the dike if it's not closed off. But maybe it does more than I realize?

It was built in the mid 1930s to help maintain the water levels in the Detroit River and Lake St Clair after the widening of the Livingston Channel. Not sure why it doesn't connect with Sugar Island. Probably to maintain a natural flow pattern around the island. Or maybe because the island was privately owned.