U.S. Water News Online
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- State regulators want New Jersey-based Honeywell International to spend $449 million over seven years to rid mercury and other toxic chemicals from Onondaga Lake, considered one of the nation's most polluted freshwater bodies.
If Honeywell agrees, the cleanup proposed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation would be the second costliest in state history behind the estimated $460 million dredging of PCBs from the Hudson River by General Electric.
The proposal would require Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell to dredge up to 2.65 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the nearly five-mile-long lake and cap about 580 acres of lake bottom.
Earlier this year, Honeywell proposed its own strategy, recommending a three-year $237 million plan to dredge 508,000 cubic yards and cap almost 350 acres. DEC's ideal remedy would have required the company to spend $2.33 billion to dredge the entire lake and build a permanent cap over 2,329 acres.
Company spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld said the DEC's plan was "generally in line" with the Honeywell proposal, but declined to say whether Honeywell would agree to it.
"We're committed to continuing to work with the state," she said. "We will continue to refine the plan during the DEC's public comment period."
Before the 20th century, Onondaga Lake was a popular tourist destination, ringed by grand resorts and an amusement park. But spoiled by decades of industrial and municipal pollution, it became a federal Superfund site in 1994. Because of that designation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will review and comment on the state plan.
The Honeywell waste sites are the legacy of the former Allied Chemical Co. complex in Solvay that closed in 1986. Honeywell merged with Allied in 1999 and became responsible for pollution that Allied dumped into the lake and along the shoreline.
Allied made liquid chlorine and caustic soda at the plant for almost 100 years before selling the property to LCP Chemicals in 1979. The plant ceased operation in 1988 under pressure from the state following repeated chlorine leaks.
Today, the lake remains a toxic stew of mercury, ammonia, phosphorous, PCBs, benzene, cyanide and other pollutants. The lake bottom is a virtual junkyard of abandoned cars, sunken barges, discarded tires and rims, and broken dishes.
DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty said restoration of the lake is one of the state's highest priorities, adding that over the past several years DEC scientists and engineers evaluated a number of alternatives and decided the proposed plan was "the most appropriate remedy."
The state's plan would take three years for design work and four years for construction, she said. The plan recommends building a cap over 425 acres of lake bottom, with a thin cap over about 154 acres in the deepest parts of the lake. Honeywell proposed capping 347 acres with clean sand.
Under the state's plan, the most contaminated sediments would be sent to a toxic waste landfill. Non-hazardous sediments would be buried in a portion of the old Allied waste beds on the lake's western shore.
Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro said his chief concern is that the plan not leave the county liable if anything goes wrong. The county already is involved in a $425 million effort to stop sewage overflows into the lake.
Meanwhile, Joseph Heath, a lawyer for the Onondaga Indian Nation said the plan "is very incomplete, and is entirely inadequate." Heath said the lake's entire bottom is polluted and should be part of the cleanup, as well as the contaminated ground sources that continue to contribute to the pollution.
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