SYRACUSE, N.Y. — As Micron’s project in Clay takes shape, community members gathered to ask if the region's next environmental injustice is being built.
The event, hosted by WAER, was at Syracuse’s ArtRage Gallery, where paintings of the Cicero swamp lined the walls. The project outlined parts of the very land Micron is building on.
Dr. Catherine Landis, a plant ecologist and science professor at State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry says the wildlife that inhabits these wetlands are in danger.
“I mean, we’re losing birds, we’re losing bats, we’re losing insects, we’re losing amphibians, I mean you name it,” Landis said. “The construction of Micron will result in the loss of 200 acres of wetlands on site,” she said.
Micron says it will replace the lost wetlands at a two-to-one ratio, or 400 acres, on six parcels of former farmland. Landis called that a good start but said the new wetlands will not provide the same habitat and may take decades to develop.
Dr. Don Hughes, a recently retired chemistry professor at Le Moyne College mainly focused on polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), also known as forever chemicals.
Those chemicals do not break down, and are likely to be in Micron’s wastewater. Flowing from the Oneida River, into Lake Ontario.
“What goes in goes out,” he said. “Some of it might get volatilized into the air. That goes into the river. The river flows into Lake Ontario. That’s what we drink.”
On top of the environmental and health concerns, Hughes said the plant will need an enormous amount of electricity to run nonstop.
“And then there’s the electricity demand, which is about 1.8 gigawatts. That is equivalent to two large nuclear reactors or has been compared to the appetite of the states of Vermont and New Hampshire combined,” Hughes said.
Micron says it’ll bring “9,000 Micron jobs, 4,500 construction jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs” to New York.
Dick Kornbluth, board chair of the Urban Jobs Task Force, said the job numbers Micron is set to create needs more context.
“There's the permanent jobs, and they talk about 9,000 potential permanent jobs,” he said. “We're looking at 20 years down the road before you see 9,000 jobs at Micron. Just keep that file away because when that first fab opens, it is not 9,000 jobs. It might be 1,000 jobs.”
Micron broke ground at the start of this year and poured its first concrete in July, with the first fab expected to operate by 2030.
Bonita Siegel, president of Neighbors for a Better Micron says her group has grown from ten members to almost 200.
“We need to get this together and basically say to Micron, don’t ignore us, because if you want us to be in this thing with you, you’re going to have to come to the table and start talking about it,” Siegel said.
Edited by Brycen Pace.
Note: WAER’s Chris Bolt moderated the panel.
Volunteer Journalists Atleigh Stanley, Helena Chernosky and Ishita Kapoor assisted with this piece.