Honeywell has originally applied sand to keep toxic mercury and other chemicals in place. However, the at least three attempts starting 2012 has failed and has caused waste to spill onto areas of the lake that had been kept clean.
"Essentially Honeywell's cleanup efforts put contaminated muck into deep lake areas that didn't have to be cleaned up," said Alma Lowry, an environmental attorney working with the Onondaga Nation. "The stuff basically slid downhill like a landslide or avalanche."
The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that the "collapses in 2012 and 2014 along steep slopes in the lake bottom contaminated nearly 40 acres of lake bed that had been relatively clean. Some of the newly contaminated areas have up to 19 times the allowed amount of toxic chemicals" according to a report Honeywell submitted to the state.
Honeywell is cleaning up the lake under a 2005 order from the DEC.
"As can occur with any large construction project, issues may be encountered from time to time, and construction techniques are continually adapted to address them," Honeywell spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld said through an email.
Joe Heath, the lawyer for the Onondaga Nation, has also expressed that the situation has raised a lot of questions with regard to the state-ordered cleanup plan.
"When you have a flawed plan to begin with, and when its implementation fails at least somewhat, that does not give you a lot of confidence we're going to have the kind of protection from these toxins that the public deserves," Heath said. "We just think we're going to find evidence of the cap failing as time goes on, given the instability of certain portions of the lake bottom."
Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Kevin Frazier has also issued a statement through an email that the company has submitted plans last summer to rectify the problem. They hope to have it done this year.
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