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EPA Proposes Permit that Will Benefit Onondaga Lake

Release Date: 03/01/2001
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(#01018) Syracuse, New York -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to issue a permit to Honeywell that will allow it to stop pumping millions of gallons of contaminated leachate from the former Allied Signal wastebeds into the Metro Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant. The permit, called an Underground Injection Control permit, will allow the company to remove contaminants from its wastewater and then inject the resulting briney fluid into the deep well, which it will construct more than 1200 feet below surface. The permit contains limitations to ensure protection of the drinking water aquifer, located 60 to 120 feet below surface -- well separated from the proposed well location by geological formations consisting of shale and limestone at a depth between 600 and 900 feet below surface. The permit, issued under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act, includes provisions for proper well construction and testing to ensure protection of the aquifer. Honeywell’s wastewater comes from wastebeds where waste product, or slurry, was deposited from Allied Signal’s former sodium carbonate manufacturing process, which ended in 1986. The leachate generated from these wastebeds has historically been piped to Metro, which eventually discharges into Onondaga Lake. This leachate contains metals and organic pollutants. These pollutants will be removed from the wastewater before it is injected into the deep well that will be located in some geological stratum that already holds salt water. EPA is taking public comment on the proposed Honeywell permit until April 2. For more information, or a copy of the permit, please call the EPA at 212-637-4226, or 212-637-3766. Comments should be addressed to EPA, Groundwater Compliance Section, 290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007. For more information about EPA’s Underground Injection Control Program go to EPA’s Web site at https://www.epa.gov/region02/community/.