Onondaga Lake Watch Public Event
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JUL 28, 2026 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Liverpool Library
310 Tulip Street
Liverpool, NY
Onondaga Lake Watch Needs Your Support for a Critical Community Air Monitoring Investigation
WHO WE ARE
Onondaga Lake Watch, https://www.facebook.com/p/OnondagaLakeWatch61575731237348/,
is a citizenled initiative and community group focused on monitoring, protecting, and revitalizing Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, New York. Over the past year we have been focused on the serious potential problem of residential exposure to mercury from the lake. Recently we have come to learn that this problem may well have been substantially underestimated, given a new understanding of the adverse health effects of the worst form of mercury, dimethylmercury, and the likelihood that local communities have been — and are continuing to be — significantly impacted. Worse yet, neither the NYSDEC nor the U.S. EPA has ever once mentioned this contaminant in all the countless technical documents leading up to the Record of Decision (ROD) for the lake cleanup! This fact alone represents a serious cause for concern.
THE PROBLEM
Mercury contamination in and around Onondaga Lake has been a major concern of many local residents for decades. Since 1950, at least 165,000 pounds of inorganic mercury and methylmercury were discharged into the lake by Allied Chemical (Honeywell’s predecessor), severely contaminating an estimated 7 million cubic yards of lakebottom sediments. To date, a mere 16 percent of these contaminated sediments have been remediated (i.e., capped). Even worse, Honeywell’s “Contaminants of Interest” to be addressed during the lake remediation inexplicably excluded all forms of organic mercury, thereby completely discounting dimethylmercury — only one of the most potent neurotoxins known to man.
Dimethylmercury is generated in the wetland environments surrounding the lake, as well as in the lake itself, during a series of complex biochemical processes. Because of its highly nonpolar nature, it easily crosses the bloodbrain barrier and the placenta, specifically targeting the central nervous system while destroying neurons in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
This investigation will determine whether, and to what degree, residents in the local community are being adversely impacted by airborne dimethylmercury — via soil gas intrusion (indoor air exposure pathway), volatilization from nearby wetlands (ambient air exposure pathway), or both.
PROPOSED APPROACH
We envision that a multi-phased approach will provide the best means of achieving this overall objective. Upon reaching the target funding goal, expected to be sufficient to complete Phase I of the investigation, Onondaga Lake Watch will retain an expert consulting team (see below).
Phase I - Screening Study
Phase I will involve targeted air sampling to assess whether the potential exists for adverse residential health effects from inhalation of dimethylmercury via either of the two pathways described above. Referred to as a “screening study,” Phase I will determine whether there is a potential for such health effects to exist under reasonable worst-case groundwater or meteorological conditions. If no such potential is identified, the investigation will be complete; in such case, reasonable evidence will then show the adverse residential exposure to be negligible. If, on the other hand, such potential does exist, further study is warranted (for one or both pathways).
Phase II - Focused Study
If warranted, Phase II will generate analytical data sufficient to enable an expert toxicologist to quantify residential inhalation exposure (indoor and/or ambient air) to dimethylmercury, together with associated adverse health effects, and will include an in-depth survey of potentially affected individuals.
Phase III - Legal Support
If warranted, Phase III will involve retaining a high-powered, unbiased, and independent law firm to seek redress for all affected plaintiffs.
Onondaga Lake Watch will maintain administrative responsibility for all phases of investigation, and will be responsible for accounting and disbursement of all donations, including the retaining of independent experts. Every dollar raised will be dedicated exclusively to dimethylmercury sampling and laboratory analysis as well as all other in investigative-related expenses.
EXPERTS
Minnich and Scotto - Onondaga Lake Watch will retain the services of Minnich and Scotto, Inc. (MSI), a New Jersey-based air quality consulting firm, https://msiair.net, to design and manage all technical aspects of this air monitoring investigation. As lead experts, Timothy Minnich and Robert Scotto have a long history working with the Town of Camillus and the Camillus Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) on the remediation of Onondaga Lake. Briefly, in March 2013, CCAC filed a Complaint against Honeywell in Onondaga County State Supreme Court seeking injunctive relief against Honeywell’s remediation of the lake, performed under the federal Superfund program (in accordance with a 2007 Consent Decree entered into with DEC). The remediation included the offsite treatment and containment of the contaminated lake-bottom sediments at Wastebed 13. This filing was preceded by an understanding between the attorneys representing the Town and CCAC that they would jointly retain MSI to perform an independent, technical evaluation of the extent of airborne exposure to the Camillus residents.
Principal findings of MSI’s technical evaluation included:
• Noncompliance with NCP (National Contingency Plan) requirements for protecting residents from adverse health impacts during the remediation
• Severely flawed methodology in the Supplemental Human Health Risk Assessment
• A wholly inadequate air monitoring program
• Major Source Threshold exceedances for several Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP)
• Unacceptable ambient air safe levels throughout the community
Thomas Pritchett - MSI will be assisted by Thomas H. Pritchett, Environmental Chemist. Mr. Pritchett has particular expertise in the design and implementation of in-field techniques and associated QC requirements to develop new or modified analytical methods for detecting and quantifying a wide range of ultra-low concentrations of organic compounds in various environmental media, with emphasis on air.
Tom had a distinguished career with the U.S. EPA National Environmental Response Team (ERT), where his duties included managing teams to assess the air impact at hazardous waste sites, as well as providing expert advice to first responders and OSCs (On Scene Coordinators) to identify potential environmental impacts during chemical emergencies. Subsequently, he was an adjunct professor at several Pennsylvania colleges, most recently serving as a Forensics Science Program faculty member, as well as mentoring forensic graduate students in several highly specialized research areas.
Tom also had significant involvement in CCAC’s Complaint against Honeywell. In support of the Plaintiffs’ Motion and in opposition to the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Tom submitted a 33-page affidavit to the Court which, among other things, excoriated Honeywell for their unfounded decision to eliminate organic mercury from further consideration as a Contaminant of Interest during the lake remediation based on results of their bench-scale wind tunnel and mass balance tests. Even though mercury was not detected in the air during windtunnel testing, it was detected in the massbalance testing with an extraordinarily high loss factor of 96.1 percent — the secondhighest of all contaminants measured. Still, because mercury was not detected during windtunnel testing, Honeywell made the appalling, explicit recommendation that mercury not be considered for further benchscale work.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for your time and for considering a donation to this GoFundMe in support of transparency, independent science, and our community. If you would like more information on Onondaga Lake Watch or our proposed investigation, please drop an email to [email protected] and we will get back to you.
https://gofund.me/e56dbf7ea
Liverpool Library
310 Tulip Street
Liverpool, NY
Onondaga Lake Watch Needs Your Support for a Critical Community Air Monitoring Investigation
WHO WE ARE
Onondaga Lake Watch, https://www.facebook.com/p/OnondagaLakeWatch61575731237348/,
is a citizenled initiative and community group focused on monitoring, protecting, and revitalizing Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, New York. Over the past year we have been focused on the serious potential problem of residential exposure to mercury from the lake. Recently we have come to learn that this problem may well have been substantially underestimated, given a new understanding of the adverse health effects of the worst form of mercury, dimethylmercury, and the likelihood that local communities have been — and are continuing to be — significantly impacted. Worse yet, neither the NYSDEC nor the U.S. EPA has ever once mentioned this contaminant in all the countless technical documents leading up to the Record of Decision (ROD) for the lake cleanup! This fact alone represents a serious cause for concern.
THE PROBLEM
Mercury contamination in and around Onondaga Lake has been a major concern of many local residents for decades. Since 1950, at least 165,000 pounds of inorganic mercury and methylmercury were discharged into the lake by Allied Chemical (Honeywell’s predecessor), severely contaminating an estimated 7 million cubic yards of lakebottom sediments. To date, a mere 16 percent of these contaminated sediments have been remediated (i.e., capped). Even worse, Honeywell’s “Contaminants of Interest” to be addressed during the lake remediation inexplicably excluded all forms of organic mercury, thereby completely discounting dimethylmercury — only one of the most potent neurotoxins known to man.
Dimethylmercury is generated in the wetland environments surrounding the lake, as well as in the lake itself, during a series of complex biochemical processes. Because of its highly nonpolar nature, it easily crosses the bloodbrain barrier and the placenta, specifically targeting the central nervous system while destroying neurons in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
This investigation will determine whether, and to what degree, residents in the local community are being adversely impacted by airborne dimethylmercury — via soil gas intrusion (indoor air exposure pathway), volatilization from nearby wetlands (ambient air exposure pathway), or both.
PROPOSED APPROACH
We envision that a multi-phased approach will provide the best means of achieving this overall objective. Upon reaching the target funding goal, expected to be sufficient to complete Phase I of the investigation, Onondaga Lake Watch will retain an expert consulting team (see below).
Phase I - Screening Study
Phase I will involve targeted air sampling to assess whether the potential exists for adverse residential health effects from inhalation of dimethylmercury via either of the two pathways described above. Referred to as a “screening study,” Phase I will determine whether there is a potential for such health effects to exist under reasonable worst-case groundwater or meteorological conditions. If no such potential is identified, the investigation will be complete; in such case, reasonable evidence will then show the adverse residential exposure to be negligible. If, on the other hand, such potential does exist, further study is warranted (for one or both pathways).
Phase II - Focused Study
If warranted, Phase II will generate analytical data sufficient to enable an expert toxicologist to quantify residential inhalation exposure (indoor and/or ambient air) to dimethylmercury, together with associated adverse health effects, and will include an in-depth survey of potentially affected individuals.
Phase III - Legal Support
If warranted, Phase III will involve retaining a high-powered, unbiased, and independent law firm to seek redress for all affected plaintiffs.
Onondaga Lake Watch will maintain administrative responsibility for all phases of investigation, and will be responsible for accounting and disbursement of all donations, including the retaining of independent experts. Every dollar raised will be dedicated exclusively to dimethylmercury sampling and laboratory analysis as well as all other in investigative-related expenses.
EXPERTS
Minnich and Scotto - Onondaga Lake Watch will retain the services of Minnich and Scotto, Inc. (MSI), a New Jersey-based air quality consulting firm, https://msiair.net, to design and manage all technical aspects of this air monitoring investigation. As lead experts, Timothy Minnich and Robert Scotto have a long history working with the Town of Camillus and the Camillus Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) on the remediation of Onondaga Lake. Briefly, in March 2013, CCAC filed a Complaint against Honeywell in Onondaga County State Supreme Court seeking injunctive relief against Honeywell’s remediation of the lake, performed under the federal Superfund program (in accordance with a 2007 Consent Decree entered into with DEC). The remediation included the offsite treatment and containment of the contaminated lake-bottom sediments at Wastebed 13. This filing was preceded by an understanding between the attorneys representing the Town and CCAC that they would jointly retain MSI to perform an independent, technical evaluation of the extent of airborne exposure to the Camillus residents.
Principal findings of MSI’s technical evaluation included:
• Noncompliance with NCP (National Contingency Plan) requirements for protecting residents from adverse health impacts during the remediation
• Severely flawed methodology in the Supplemental Human Health Risk Assessment
• A wholly inadequate air monitoring program
• Major Source Threshold exceedances for several Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP)
• Unacceptable ambient air safe levels throughout the community
Thomas Pritchett - MSI will be assisted by Thomas H. Pritchett, Environmental Chemist. Mr. Pritchett has particular expertise in the design and implementation of in-field techniques and associated QC requirements to develop new or modified analytical methods for detecting and quantifying a wide range of ultra-low concentrations of organic compounds in various environmental media, with emphasis on air.
Tom had a distinguished career with the U.S. EPA National Environmental Response Team (ERT), where his duties included managing teams to assess the air impact at hazardous waste sites, as well as providing expert advice to first responders and OSCs (On Scene Coordinators) to identify potential environmental impacts during chemical emergencies. Subsequently, he was an adjunct professor at several Pennsylvania colleges, most recently serving as a Forensics Science Program faculty member, as well as mentoring forensic graduate students in several highly specialized research areas.
Tom also had significant involvement in CCAC’s Complaint against Honeywell. In support of the Plaintiffs’ Motion and in opposition to the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Tom submitted a 33-page affidavit to the Court which, among other things, excoriated Honeywell for their unfounded decision to eliminate organic mercury from further consideration as a Contaminant of Interest during the lake remediation based on results of their bench-scale wind tunnel and mass balance tests. Even though mercury was not detected in the air during windtunnel testing, it was detected in the massbalance testing with an extraordinarily high loss factor of 96.1 percent — the secondhighest of all contaminants measured. Still, because mercury was not detected during windtunnel testing, Honeywell made the appalling, explicit recommendation that mercury not be considered for further benchscale work.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for your time and for considering a donation to this GoFundMe in support of transparency, independent science, and our community. If you would like more information on Onondaga Lake Watch or our proposed investigation, please drop an email to [email protected] and we will get back to you.
https://gofund.me/e56dbf7ea
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Where is it happening?
Liverpool Public Library, 310 Tulip St,Liverpool, New York, United States
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Host or PublisherOnondaga Lake Watch
