Onondaga Lake is no longer Syracuse’s sewer.
That’s the result of Onondaga County having completed more than two-thirds of its court-ordered projects to stop municipal sewage from polluting the lake, say government and other experts.
“Onondaga Lake is beginning to show the results of efforts to restore water quality,” said Elias Rodriguez, a representative for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in an e-mail interview. The federal agency, he said, “is pleased with the progress so far.”
Lake Onondaga is one of the most polluted lakes in the United States. The problem stems from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Syracuse quickly became an industrial city. The pollution started as local industries began dumping chemicals into the lake. Untreated municipal wastewater from Syracuse also contributed to the problem.
Now, Onondaga County is 10 years into a 15-year plan to reduce the effect of municipal wastewater on Onondaga Lake. Since 1998, it has been working under a federal court order, enforced by state and government agencies, to reduce pollution into the lake into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. The plan calls for more than 30 projects to be completed by 2012. The plan is costing the county roughly $500 million, according to The Post-Standard. The bill is footed by county tax money as well as federal and state aid.
In addition to the county’s efforts, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is overseeing several projects to clean-up pollution in and around the lake. These include dredging the lake’s sediment for mercury and cleaning up sites around the lake where companies have dumped pollution in the past. These projects are funded by the companies responsible for the pollution.
Under the federal court order, the county is working on a three-tier plan to stop its contribution to the lake’s pollution. The plan includes these goals:
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Making improvements to the county’s wastewater treatment facilities
The county has completed all of the upgrades to its Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant, required under the federal court order. These include bringing its sewage treatment systems more up-to-date, making general upgrades to the facility, such as fixing roofs and electronic management systems and installing a facility to remove pollutants such as ammonia and phosphorus from wastewater. In the treatment process, the pollutants bond to chemicals that can be easily filtered out of the water. Those treat sewage so that it can flow into the lake as clean water.
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Getting rid of sewer overflow
Sewer overflow occurs during periods of heavy rainfall or melting snow when excess water causes the county’s sewage systems to overflow. The untreated water and floating debris from the sewers then flow into Onondaga Lake through streams. To combat this problem, the county is building regional treatment facilities to treat sewage before it reaches streams, separating storm and sanitary sewers to prevent overflow and setting up facilities to remove floating debris from streams flowing into the lake. So far, the county has completed 13 of its 16 projects to combat sewer overflow.
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Setting up a monitoring program
The county is constantly monitoring the quality of the lake’s water and the health of its aquatic life to make sure that its other improvements are effective, say county officials.
The improvement projects do have a few drawbacks and have sparked some controversy. Some of the proposed regional treatment plants will need to be built in residential and commercial areas. Construction of these plants will mean relocating some of the people and businesses in the area.
The improvements may also do some harm to the environment.
Sewage water, for example, is treated with chlorine for decontamination. This is a problem, said Dr. Richard Smardon, professor of environmental studies at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, because the chlorine can also harm aquatic life in the lake.
“You have a batch of chlorine going into the lake,” he said. “That’s not good for the aquatic life there.”
The improvements could also disrupt the lake’s natural ecology, said
Smardon. The cleaner water is allowing new species, such as zebra mussels, to thrive. The problem, said Smardon, is that these new species eat the plankton that feed the lake’s other life, causing a change in the food chain.
But despite these drawbacks, the county’s efforts are beginning to pay off, Smardon and others agree. So far, the improvements have yielded these results:
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Decreased ammonia and phosphorus
Since improvements have made to the county’s sewage treatment facilities, ammonia levels in Onondaga Lake have decreased by about 85 percent. And phosphorus levels in the lake have decreased by about 70 percent, according the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
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Increased aquatic life
Improvements to the lake’s water quality have allowed the lake to support more wildlife, said Diane Carlton of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Syracuse office.
“We’ve got about 60 species of fish that are now successful in the lake,” said Carlton. “We were down to fewer than 10.”
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Improved odor and appearance
The lake smells and looks a lot better because it’s getting less overflow, said Brenda Nordenstam, professor of environmental studies at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. These improvements, she said, could be a boon for lakeside businesses even if the lake remains polluted by chemicals.
“Would I swim in it?” asked Nordenstam? “I doubt it. Would I eat fish from it? I doubt it.” But, said Nordenstam, a better smell and look make the lake more pleasant to be around. This would help lakeside businesses whose customers may have been turned away by the lake’s unpleasantness and open up the lake to recreation.
(Liam Migdail-Smith is a junior newspaper journalism major.)
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