Onondaga County residents are about to get their say about Micron today during three public hearings at Liverpool High School. The sessions begin this morning and last through the evening. County executive Ryan McMahon says those who sign up will have 2 to 3 minutes to speak. He says questions and comments will be recorded.
“And it won’t be a back and forth. Our staffs at OCIDA and the Department of Commerce will be there. They will be leading it. But, this isn’t you’re asking a question and someone’s giving you an answer. This is a public hearing for public comments.”
Several groups have asked for an extension of the public comment period. However, the county executive says there are no plans to do that. Environmental consultant Don Hughes is a member of Sustain CNY and is an executive committee member of the local Sierra Club. He has several issues with the Micron project.
“There's massive amounts of water that gets consumed in this process. There's a massive amounts of chemicals they're going to be coming into this facilities and used. Handled by workers, there's potentials for spills. There's the whole issue of what kind of emissions are coming out of this plant through the stacks.”
Hughes says there are also environmental concerns at the Micron construction site and greenhouse gas emissions relative to the chip fab once it’s built. Meanwhile, county executive McMahon says water quality or environmental concerns will be addressed later during the permitting process by the State DEC and by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Here is the schedule for today’s public hearings at Liverpool High School: 10 am - 1 pm, 2 – 5 pm and 6 – 9 pm. Click here to view the report. Hard copies are also available at Onondaga County Public Libraries. To find out more about how you can comment about the project without attending, click here.
