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THE ONONDAGA
LAKE "CLEANUP" PLAN
According to the Record of Decision (ROD) and the
Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD), Honeywell’s cleanup
will:
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Dredge up to 2.65 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments
to a depth that will allow for a ‘cap’ to be built without
the loss of lake surface area.
-
Dredge in the in lake waste deposit to remove
areas within ‘hot
spots’.
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Install a cap over 579 acres of lake-bottom
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Treatment and/or off-site
disposal of contaminated sediments.
-
Treat water
created by the dredging and sediment handling process to meet NYSDEC
discharge limits.
-
Extend the lakeshore and install a ‘barrier
wall’ – a
steel wall keyed into the clay layer beneath the lake – along
the southwest corner of the lake; build a pumping system on the shore-side
of the wall to retrieve chlorinated benzenes.
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Operation, maintenance and monitoring program once the plan has
been implemented.
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Total estimated cost for an unacceptable, inadequate ‘cleanup’ plan:
$451,000,000 dollars.
What Honeywell and NYSDEC’s ‘cleanup’ will
NOT do:
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This plan will NOT dredge the additional 18 million cubic yards
that the NYSDEC found to be contaminated with dangerous, persistent,
and mobile chemicals.
-
This plan will NOT dredge the entire in lake waste deposit – a
toxic waste dump within the lake as a result of decades of Honeywell’s
dumping.
-
This plan does NOT effectively contain toxic chemicals and heavy
metals that will be left in the lake-bottom sediments. Caps are not
a reliable form of containment – they will fail, and whether
it is in 10 years or 110 years, it is only a matter of time. And
when that happens, the chemicals will be re-released into the ecosystem.
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This plan
will NOT dredge the entire in lake waste deposit – a
toxic waste dump within the lake as a result of decades of Honeywell’s
dumping.
-
This plan will NOT remove or even cap the entirety of the lake-bottom.
Mercury is found throughout lake-bottom sediments and will continue
to methylate, becoming even more dangerous to the lake’s inhabitants.
-
This
plan does NOT set any goals for making the lake ‘swimmable’ or ‘fishable’ – part
of the clean water act.
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This plan will NOT remove all of the chlorinated
benzenes. Retrieval wells cannot and will not extract all of the carcinogens.
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This plan does NOT provide a permanent or effective remedy for Onondaga
Lake. The plan relies on hopes and dreams that the cap will not fail
and that pumping.
-
Total estimated cost for a real, thorough cleanup: $2.16 billion.
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