It is no accident that the State of Indiana does not have a single nuclear electric power plant. Northern Indiana Public Service Company had proposed one, Bailly Nuclear-I, immediately adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, in particular the Cowles Bog unit-globally recognized as the birthplace of the study of ecology, flowing from the work of the late Dr. Henry Chandler Cowles. The League's Porter County Chapter led the organization's challenge against that proposal during the 1970s, on the basis of dangers to park visitors, certain damages to Cowles Bog due to adjacent water drawdowns, and severe ecological impacts. Among related impacts, over a mile of the park shoreline and hundreds of acres would have to be set aside as "buffer" to absorb the plant's impacts and possible radioactive discharges to air, water and land. The legal contest was led by Chapter members Edward W. Osann, an engineer and attorney, and Herbert Read, an architectural engineer. Among the League's challenges were to reports by the utility, incorrect representations contained, factual errors, and serious structural deficiencies. Over fifty contentions were prepared by the Chapter, many of which were backed by noted environmental experts and the National Park Service. The controversy was the most extensive and longestrunning in the history of nuclear power controversies. Eventually, the utility abandoned the project due to technical, environmental and increased cost problems - leaving only a sandy hole in the ground as evidence of the effort.

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