The cleanup of Onondaga lake might have created a health threat that residents are trying to have addressed. This latest effort is meant to draw attention to health concerns that go back years.
The massive Onondaga Lake cleanup project included dredging piles of contaminated sediment from the bottom of the lake. Much of that material was brought to waste beds just west of the lake.
Now, Onondaga Lake Watch has been raising concerns over mercury coming from those waste beds. The group has mounted a campaign to finally test for the threat.
“The air is the direct route of exposure, you can't get away from it. I mean, if it's there, you're just going to be exposed,” said Robert Scotto, air quality consultant with Minnich and Scotto, Inc.
Scotto explained during a public meeting that they want to look for dimethylmercury, which they worry is coming from the waste beds, and “if we can evidence the presence of dimethylmercury at any time during the worst-case atmospheric dispersion, then that's a cause for very high concern because of the tremendous amount of mercury that was really disposed of,” as part of the Onondaga Lake cleanup.
There can be times, they say , when there’s no atmospheric concentration, so spot testing would not show the problem.
Onondaga Lake Watch founder Maria Tickner said the concerns over exposure go back more than a decade. Past attempts by a Camillus citizen group to get state or federal environmental regulators to monitor the area were denied.
“We believe that focusing a light on our situation through this proposed dimethylmercury study could well be the catalyst to bringing national attention to our plight. So light is the best disinfectant. Such attention could force a more comprehensive investigation, this time by current EPA administration,” Tickner said.
The group and the air quality consultants propose an airborne exposure study. If mercury is found, they would follow with biological testing of residents in the affected area, which could lead to legal action.
Onondaga Lake Watch has a GoFundMe page to try and raise that support to pay for the testing.
