DEC says $451M Onondaga Lake cleanup enters dredging phase

SYRACUSE — Dredging and capping of contaminated sediments in Onondaga Lake is set to start this summer, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens announced at an event in Syracuse today.

The $451 million Superfund remediation project has undergone five years of design and engineering, with preparation for dredging and capping now started. Honeywell International is conducting the project with oversight by DEC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the New York State Department of Health (DOH).

“The cleanup of Onondaga Lake has made tremendous progress over the past several years through cleaning up industrial pollution sites and Onondaga County’s state-of-the-art wastewater treatment projects,” said Martens. “Onondaga Lake will now undergo perhaps one of the largest, most complex and advanced dredging projects in the nation that will benefit the environment and public health while helping the community through increased economic activity. Today has been a long time in the making and was made possible through the cooperative efforts of DEC, EPA, DOH, Honeywell, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the local communities surrounding the lake.”

The dredging project is scheduled to be fully operational later this summer. Activities such as debris removal and equipment testing will be taking place over the next several weeks, the DEC said. Honeywell estimates that more than 500 Central New York scientists, engineers, and skilled craft laborers are working on the project, and Honeywell plans to hire more local workers as the effort proceeds.

Industrial activities on or near Onondaga Lake contributed to a variety of industrial contaminants like mercury and other metals, chlorinated benzenes, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, and PCBs being dumped into the lake over decades.

Crews will perform dredging on 185 acres of the lake, which represents about 6 percent of the 3,000-acre lake bottom. In addition, they will do dredging on 21 acres in three areas adjacent to the lake, the DEC said. The estimated volume of materials to be removed is about 2 million cubic yards.
Dredging and capping operations in Onondaga Lake are expected to be completed in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Habitat-restoration activities to be performed in all remediated areas are anticipated to be finished in 2016, the DEC said.

For more information, the community is invited to a public information meeting on Thursday, June 14 in the Martha Eddy Room of the Art and Home Center at the New York State Fairgrounds. An open house will run from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. where members of the public can interact one-on-one with project managers and ask questions.

Project-design documents, fact sheets, the Community Health and Safety Plan, and how to sign up to receive DEC’s Onondaga Lake News email updates, are all available on DEC’s website.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com