Sediment is contaminated with mercury, PCBs and more. Residents say it threatens their health.
Michelle Scott, of Camillus, listens to Alec Baldwin speak during a Camillus Community Coalition news conference in April in Geddes. Seated with her are her sons, Brandon (left) and Connor, both 6. The coalition is opposed to a plan to put Onondaga Lake sediment in Wastebed 13.Camillus, NY -- Federal environmental officials said Thursday that dredging contaminated sediment from the bottom of Onondaga Lake and burying it in Wastebed 13 does not pose significant health risks to nearby residents.
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The Environmental Protection Agency looked at two possible threats to human health: exposure to chemicals in the air as the sediment dries, and exposure to sediment to individuals on or near the wastebed if the containment area fails. “All resulting estimated risks were within levels identified by EPA as acceptable,” the EPA said in a news release announcing the results of its study.
Town residents and officials had asked for an evaluation of the risk to human health posed by burying the sediment in the wastebed located off Airport Road.
Camillus resident Tom Gdula, who lives about a half-mile from Wastebed 13 and who is one of the leaders of the opposition to the disposal plan, said the assessment didn’t address several concerns of residents. Those concerns include the effect of mixing together sediment containing a number of toxins, such as PCBs and mercury.
“PCBs and mercury together are much more harmful than PCBs or mercury individually,” he said. “There’s no testing for that.”
The study also didn’t take into account the possibility that any of the pumps moving the sediment to the wastebed would fail or sediment spill accidentally, he said.
The dredging plan calls for sediment to be vacuumed from the lake bottom and pumped through a pipeline about three to four miles to the wastebed. The water will be drained and treated, and the sediment will be packed into plastic tubes then buried at the wastebed.
Gdula noted that the dredging plan involves more toxic material than the volume of oil now fouling the Gulf of Mexico. “This dwarfs the Gulf,” he said.
The plan calls for moving 4.7 million gallons of toxic sediment to the wastebed each day for more than five years. That’s 3.3 billion gallons, he said. By comparison, the oil disaster is dumping an estimated 2 million gallons of oil daily into the Gulf, he said. “When you’re dealing with large systems, you have to consider the possible failure modes, and they didn’t do that all,” Gdula said.
Burying the sediment in Wastebed 13 is part of the overall project to clean up Onondaga Lake. Honeywell International is liable for the estimated $451 million it will cost to clean up the lake. Work is expected to start this summer to prepare Wastebed 13 to receive the sediment.
Contact John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 251-5718.