Port of Cleveland¶
Overview¶
The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority governs the Port of Cleveland on the south shore of Lake Erie. Cleveland is the third-largest Great Lakes port by vessel calls, handling iron ore (received from the Mesabi Range via Duluth-Superior, Two Harbors, and Silver Bay), limestone, steel products, general cargo, and a growing container service. Cleveland sits on the demand side of the same supply chain that originates at the Lake Superior iron ore docks: Mesabi Range taconite ships from Minnesota, transits Lake Superior and Lake Huron, and discharges at Cleveland (and Toledo, and Burns Harbor) to feed lower-lakes steelmaking.
The City of Cleveland has a population of approximately 362,000, with the broader Cleveland-Akron metropolitan area surrounding 2 million. The port operating area intersects with the historically industrial Flats neighborhood along the lower Cuyahoga River, which has been the subject of independent environmental justice analysis. Atlas Policy published a November 2024 issue brief on Cleveland port-area census-tract demographics and emissions exposure, providing a pre-existing screening-level documentation base that any full assessment would reconcile against.
The Cuyahoga River AOC — formed by the same federal Areas of Concern program that underpins Duluth's St. Louis River AOC — overlaps with port operations. The Cuyahoga River is the AOC most identified in U.S. environmental history (its 1969 fire is widely credited as a catalyst for the Clean Water Act). Substantial federal-state remediation investment has been directed at sediment and water quality in the AOC zone over the last several decades, with at-berth vessel emissions in the same boundary remaining unregulated.
Emissions Profile¶
| Source | Estimated Annual Emissions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| At-berth vessel emissions (CO₂) | ~33,600 t (screening estimate) | Scaled from Duluth at-berth CO₂ baseline using ~600 estimated vessel calls |
| At-berth criteria pollutants (PM2.5, NOx) | ~168 t (screening estimate) | Scaled from Duluth (~190 t / 687 calls = ~0.28 t/call) |
| Port equipment & terminal operations | Not characterized at screening level | Multiple terminal operators |
| Total port-attributable | Not finalized at screening level | Full assessment required |
Methodology
Estimates are screening-level, derived from the ICCT Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Ship Emissions Inventory (Meng & Comer, March 2022) and scaled relative to Duluth-Superior's fully characterized profile. Cleveland's vessel call count is among the highest on the Great Lakes (third by calls), and its at-berth emissions footprint is likely the largest of any priority Great Lakes port outside of Duluth-Superior. A full assessment would reconcile estimates against Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority records and the Atlas Policy November 2024 issue brief.
Community Exposure¶
Port-adjacent Cleveland neighborhoods include the Flats and adjacent industrial corridors along the lower Cuyahoga River, with documented EJ concerns spanning multiple census tracts. Atlas Policy's November 2024 issue brief documents the demographic profile and emissions overlay in detail.
| Community/Tract | Population | Median Income | EJ Indicators | Distance to Port |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Flats and adjacent Cuyahoga corridor (multiple tracts) | ~30,000+ in immediate vicinity | Mixed; several tracts below state median | Documented EJ flags; AOC zone overlap | <2 miles |
| Greater Cleveland | ~362,000 (city) | Below state median in port-adjacent tracts | 2–10 miles | |
| Cleveland-Akron metro | ~2,000,000 | At/above state median (metro-wide) | 10–30 miles |
CDC PLACES tract-level data is available for all Cuyahoga County census tracts. The Atlas Policy brief provides a Cleveland-specific reference point that no other Great Lakes priority port has at the screening level. EJScreen census-tract analysis is not produced at screening level.
Regulatory Jurisdiction¶
| Agency | Authority | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) | State air and water quality | First Ohio jurisdiction in this section — different regulatory environment from MN/WI |
| EPA Region 5 | Federal oversight | Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative |
| USACE Buffalo District | Navigation, dredging | |
| Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority | Port governance | |
| City of Cleveland / Cuyahoga County | Land use, zoning, city/county environmental policy |
At-berth emissions controls: None.
Ohio is the first jurisdiction in this Great Lakes section outside of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ohio EPA has independent legal authority to adopt CARB's at-berth standard following EPA's October 2023 Clean Air Act authorization. Ohio EPA has not initiated rulemaking. Ohio jurisdiction would also cover the Port of Toledo (a separate Ohio port profiled in this section), so a single state action would have multi-port effect on the Lake Erie south shore.
Health Impact Potential¶
A full health impact assessment for the Port of Cleveland would quantify:
- Premature deaths attributable to port PM2.5 emissions
- Cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations
- Childhood asthma emergency department visits
- Monetized annual health damages using EPA Value of Statistical Life methodology
- Health benefits of at-berth emissions reduction scenarios
- Cumulative-burden interaction with Cuyahoga River AOC contamination
The Atlas Policy November 2024 issue brief provides a starting reference point that a full assessment would extend with BenMAP-CE concentration-response modeling, monetized health damages using EPA Value of Statistical Life methodology, and FOIA-enhanced reconciliation of Ohio EPA monitoring data against published summaries. Cleveland is also methodologically interesting as the demand-side of the iron ore supply chain that originates at the Mesabi Range — a coordinated assessment of supply-side (Duluth, Two Harbors, Silver Bay) and demand-side (Cleveland, Toledo, Burns Harbor) ports would document the system-wide health footprint of a single supply chain.
Comparison to Duluth-Superior¶
| Metric | Cleveland | Duluth-Superior |
|---|---|---|
| Annual tonnage | ~13M (screening estimate) | 25.3M |
| Vessel calls | ~600 (screening estimate) | 687 |
| Metro population | ~362,000 (city) / ~2M (metro) | ~115,000 |
| AOC overlay | Cuyahoga River AOC | St. Louis River AOC |
| Pre-existing EJ documentation | Atlas Policy (2024) | EcoAsset Lab full assessment |
| Supply chain role | Demand-side (iron ore receiving) | Supply-side (iron ore loading) |
| At-berth controls | None | None |
| Assessment depth | Screening | Full Assessment → |
Cleveland is the closest peer to Duluth-Superior in vessel call volume and is structurally the demand-side mirror of the Mesabi Range supply chain. The first state-level Ohio rulemaking — which Ohio EPA has independent authority to enact — would simultaneously affect Cleveland and Toledo, just as a Wisconsin or Minnesota rulemaking would affect multiple ports in those states. Cleveland is the most plausible candidate for the second full-depth Great Lakes assessment after Duluth, given vessel call volume, EJ concentration, and the Atlas Policy reference base.
This is a screening-level profile using publicly available data. A site-specific health impact assessment with census-tract resolution, FOIA-enhanced data, and monetized health outcomes is available through our research services.
Data sources: ICCT GL-SLS Ship Emissions Inventory (Meng & Comer, 2022); ICCT Nationwide Port Emissions Screening (September 2024); EPA EJScreen; CDC PLACES; EPA Great Lakes AOC program; Atlas Policy issue brief on Cleveland port-area emissions (November 2024); USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics; U.S. Census ACS.