I am among a group of concerned citizens with scientific backgrounds who are working tirelessly behind the scenes to review the federal, state and local permitting and rezoning involved with approving Micron’s construction and operations process. We include an engineer who lives 1.5 miles from the site, as well as chemists and engineers and chips manufacturing experts who live here and all across the nation. Our approach is one of risk prevention, i.e., to mitigate harm that may come from the largest industrial project in New York state history.
Uniformly we agree that we do not have enough time to accurately review and comment on the hundred or more pages that come with each permit. The latest New York state Department of Environmental Conservation permit relates to operations of the Oak Orchard Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) located in Clay. The recent article by Tim Knauss informs the public that there will be a $549 million price tag for upgrades to this plant which will process sewage from the Onondaga County community, including Micron, and that a second industrial wastewater treatment plant will be built and paid for by Micron.
What is missing in this article is that the WWTP permit that is under review right now, as well as Micron’s published updated timeline of demolition, construction and operations indicates that Micron intends to use the Oak Orchard WWTP to bridge operations of the first and possibly second fabs, until the industrial WWTP (that Micron will pay for) can be built. If this is so, then the upgrade does not appear to have the technical capacity to properly dispose of PFAS that will be discharged into the water…