Engineer asks legislature to seek ROD amendment for additional Onondaga Lake cleanup

Mikaela Jazz Cleary Hammerstead, an environmental engineer and Syracuse native, told the Onondaga County Legislature that recent soil testing at Onondaga Lake Park Marina found mercury levels that triggered a mandatory cleanup under NYSDEC rules and that the county should pursue a Record of Decision (ROD) amendment to expand remediation.

“As an engineer, I believe the original cleanup was insufficient,” Hammerstead said, urging the legislature to request an ROD amendment from the Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to fully address contamination in shallows around Onondaga Lake. She said decisions in the prior ROD left large volumes—speaker cited 18,000,000 cubic yards—of contaminated sediment capped rather than fully removed and argued ongoing monitoring and selective capping have not met the Clean Water Act’s swimmable-and-fishable goals.

Hammerstead asked lawmakers to consider a broader cleanup plan, warning that mercury and other toxins remain in fish and wildlife and that local drinking-water intakes could be at risk if contamination migrates downstream. She closed by asking legislators to work with state and federal agencies to expand remediation and cited 18 supporting citations included with her remarks.