Lake Half-Clean? Not So Fast -
Onondaga Lake still has a long way to go Syracuse Post-Standard
October 17, 2005
Letter to the Editor:
Onondaga Lake still has a long way to go before it can be considered
even halfway cleaned up ("ESF Scientists Show Progress in Onondaga
Lake Cleanup," Oct. 4; and "Celebrating Onondaga Lake's Halfway
Point," Oct. 6). Just because half of the $460 million in taxpayer
monies earmarked for lake cleanup projects has been spent does not mean
the lake is 50 percent cleaner, as the articles imply.
All of the money spent so far has focused on improving Metro's control
of waste chemicals, one of the many types of pollutants in Onondaga Lake,
and the easiest to control. We are encouraged by the successes of Metro.
Keeping substances like ammonia and phosphorus out of the waters will help
foster the well-being of fish and wildlife that live within the lake.
Yet
there are still thousands of pounds of deadly toxins like mercury, PCBs
and dioxins on the lake bottom. And dozens of pounds of these toxins continue
to leech into the lake from nine surrounding Superfund sites daily.
Haudenosaunee
(Iroquois) leaders were instructed by the Peacemaker to be people of vision,
and to make every decision on behalf of the seventh generation to come;
to have compassion and love for those generations yet unborn. This is why
this lake must be cleaned up completely. How can we have compassion for
future generations and at the same time leave Onondaga Lake, a sacred lake,
as a toxic stew that we know will harm them?
That's what the official "cleanup" will do. According to the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, it would cost
$2.3 billion to truly clean the lake bottom and that does not include
the cost of cleaning up the nine surrounding Superfund sites that leech
poisons into the lake daily. The official "cleanup" plan
that is moving forward only calls for $450 million of Honeywell's money
to be spent, None of that money has yet been spent, and none of the lake-bottom
cleanup has yet begun.
So how can it now be claimed that the lake is half
way cleaned? What are the criteria for this? We all know you cannot swim
in the lake, you cannot drink the lake waters, and you cannot eat fish
from the lake. And the "cleanup" plan sets no goals or guidelines
for when you can do any of those things (which is against the federal
Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's own regulations).
We are surprised and disappointed that these misleading statements are
being made.
We are hopeful that the people of Central New York and their
leaders will see that the complete cleanup of Onondaga Lake is essential
to our ability to survive in this area and protect our quality of life,
Even though you are in your boat and we in our canoe, we share the same
River of Life; what befalls me, befalls you. If we do not change this
plan, downstream in this River of Life, our children will pay for our
selfishness, our greed and our lack of vision.
