SYRACUSE — A two-week training program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepared 14 graduates for work on Superfund sites including Onondaga Lake.
Most the graduates will be hired to work on the lake cleanup, according to the EPA. The course prepared students for careers in environmental cleanup and helped them earn certifications in the field.
The agency’s Superfund Job Training Initiative provides free job training to people living in communities affected by toxic waste sites, according to the EPA. A graduation ceremony for the local course took place Wednesday at the South Side Innovation Center on Salina Street.
“Environmental cleanups create new jobs,” Regional EPA Administrator Judith Enck said in a news release. “EPA promotes local job training in communities that have been hard hit by toxic pollution and we are happy to launch this program in Syracuse.”
Dredging to remove contaminated material from the lake bottom began this summer, according to the EPA. Honeywell International, which ultimately acquired companies that polluted the lake over the years, is responsible for the cleanup with oversight from federal and state agencies.
The dredging project will continue until 2016.
Honeywell and its contractors, Parsons Corp. and O’Brien & Gere, have reserved jobs for local graduates of the Superfund Job Training Initiative, according to the EPA. More information on the initiative is available here.
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