The Nemadji River is a river rising in Pine County, Minnesota, United States, which flows through Carlton County, Minnesota and Douglas County, Wisconsin to Lake Superior. The river is 65 miles (105 km) long measured from its source in Maheu Lake in Pine County, and 20 miles (32 km) from its confluence with the South Fork in Carlton County just east of the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.[1] The Nemadji river empties into Lake Superior in an industrial neighborhood at Allouez Bay in the City of Superior's east-side neighborhood of Allouez and Wisconsin Point.
Nemadji comes from the Ojibwe language, "ne-madji-tic-guay-och" (Nemanjitigweyaag in the contemporary spelling), meaning "left-hand river,"[2] opposed to the St. Louis River when viewed from Allouez Bay is the "right-hand river".
In 1992, a Burlington Northern train derailed south of Superior, releasing 30,000 gallons of aromatic hydrocarbons, a highly toxic chemical, into the Nemadji river. Fish, wildlife and other resources were severely affected by the incident. In March 2004, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a draft that would use funds received from a settlement with Burlington Northern to restore a portion of the Lake Superior basin affected by the incident.[3]