Honeywell has asked state officials to exempt it from getting local permits to bury contaminated sediment from Onondaga Lake.
Camillus, NY -- Honeywell International looks like it will be able to bury contaminated sediment from Onondaga Lake without getting any local permits or permissions from Camillus town officials.
Honeywell has asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to exempt it from local permit requirements, and DEC Regional Director Kenneth Lynch said such exemptions are granted routinely.
“It’s very typical for most, if not all, remediation projects not to be subject to local permitting requirements,” he said. “But, given that this is driven by both state and federal law, together with a federal consent decree, we’re taking a look at this particular situation.”
The DEC also has had some preliminary discussions with the town and will continue to do that before making any final ruling, he said.
The town board discussed the issue July 15 with the town’s lawyer. Board member Richard Griffo said the town is exploring what legal avenues are open to it. The board has not said officially what it plans to do. Camillus Town Supervisor Mary Ann Coogan declined to comment.
Honeywell is paying an estimated $451 million to clean up the lake, which served for decades as a dump for municipal and industrial waste. The clean-up project includes dredging sediment, which contains mercury and chemical compounds like polychlorinated biphenyls, better known as PCBs, and burying the sediment in Wastebed 13, an old AlliedSignal waste disposal area off Airport Road.
Residents who live near the site, and the town board oppose the plan. Griffo said he doesn’t want the sediment buried in town at all, but at the very least he and others want the cleanup to use “green” technologies like chemical oxidation and nanotechnology to treat the sediment and reduce its toxicity.
“They say it won’t work on water and slurry,” he said. “Well, prove it.”
Honeywell, in a letter June 24 to the DEC, cited local opposition as one reason it is asking for the exemption.
“In part, that’s why both state and federal law has these exemptions from local permitting so that remediation projects cannot be stopped by local action only,” Lynch said.
An exemption, while routine, is not certain.
“It’s not automatic,” he said. “There are certain criteria they have to meet in order for us to grant that exemption.”
There are four criteria:
• Obtaining permits could delay the project.
• The remediation would be conducted on-site.
• The project complies with public participation requirements outlined in state law.
• Honeywell will comply with substantive technological requirements under town zoning law.
Work on preparing the wastebed site is to begin sometime in August, Lynch said.
“We’re currently reviewing the letter, and we’ll probably be responding to that letter sometime before the anticipated start of construction,” he said.
John Stith can be reached at jstith@syracuse.com or at 251-5718.