The Onondaga Lake Superfund Site includes a number of subsites which include Onondaga Lake itself and any site that is situated on the Lake’s shores or tributaries that has contributed contamination to, or threatens to contribute contamination to, Onondaga Lake. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting its first five-year review of the Lake Bottom Subsite. The lake is located in the Towns of Geddes and Salina, Villages of Solvay and Liverpool and the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York. This review seeks to confirm that the cleanup conducted at the site to date, which has included dredging of contaminated lake sediment; disposal of the dredged
sediment at a containment facility constructed on a nearby former Solvay wastebed; isolation and thin-layer capping in the lake; habitat restoration along the Wastebed 1-8 shoreline; and the addition of calcium nitrate near the lakebed in the deep water portion of the lake to inhibit methylmercury production, continues to protect human health and the environment. Dredging and capping activities in Onondaga Lake began in July and August 2012, respectively, in accordance with the approved designs. Dredging was completed in November 2014. Capping operations are ongoing and are expected to be completed in 2016. Following a three-year in-lake pilot study conducted between 2011 and 2013, nitrate addition began in 2014. A summary of cleanup activities and an evaluation of the protectiveness of the implemented cleanup remedy will be included in the five-year review report. What is an EPA Five-Year Review?
The purpose of five-year reviews is to ensure that implemented remedies at Superfund sites function as intended and continue to be protective of human health and the environment. These regular reviews, which are required by federal law when contaminants remain at a site, include:
Inspection of the site and cleanup technologies;
Review of monitoring data, operating data, and maintenance records, and
Determination if any new relevant regulatory requirements have been established since the original clean-up decision was finalized.
When will EPA’s Five-Year Review Report be available?
It is anticipated that the five-year review report will be available at the website noted below in late August 2015. There are several ways to review information about
this subsite. The Administrative Record, which includes the decision documents used for selecting the cleanup remedy, is available for public review at the information repositories listed below. Project information is also available online at the website
noted below.
NYSDEC, Region 7
615 Erie Blvd. West, Syracuse, NY
Atlantic States Legal Foundation
658 West Onondaga Street, Syracuse, NY
Onondaga County Public Library
447 South Salina Street, Syracuse, NY
Solvay Public Library
615 Woods Rd, Solvay, NY
NYSDEC, Central Office
625 Broadway, Albany, NY
If you have any questions or concerns about the subsite, please contact:
Robert Nunes
EPA Remedial Project Manager
Phone: (212) 637-4254
Email: nunes.robert@epa.gov
or
Larisa Romanowski
EPA Community Involvement Coordinator
Phone: (518) 747-4389
Email: romanowski.larisa@epa.gov
For more information visit:
http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/onondagalake/index.html