Onondaga County Chosen to Highlight Environmental Gains Since Original “Earth Day”
ALBANY, NY (04/20/2010)(readMedia)– New York State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis celebrated this week’s 40th anniversary of Earth Day by highlighting progress in the Syracuse area at a news conference on Onondaga Lake.
“Forty years ago, there was virtually no positive news about Onondaga Lake,” said Commissioner Grannis. “That’s not the case today. While much remains to be done to achieve the long-term recovery we all desire, this anniversary gives New Yorkers a chance to take stock of the environmental gains we’ve made.”
Commissioner Grannis, who helped organize the first Earth Day in New York City in 1970, is touring sites around the state that illustrate the significant environmental progress New York has made over the past 40 years. The commissioner noted that at Onondaga Lake:
- Phosphorus, chlorides and ammonia levels in the lake have decreased substantially.
- 65 species of fish were recently documented in the lake, up from the 9-12 species counted in the 1970s. In 2007, the Bassmasters Majors tournament was held here.
- Progress continues on cleaning up industrial waste sites that have impacted the lake.
- The Onondaga Audubon Society has designated it an “Important Bird Area.” Sightings of Bald Eagles, ospreys, kingfishers and Great Egrets have increased.
- A groundbreaking plan was launched last year to allow Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse to use cutting-edge “green” technology to attack the long-standing problem of wastewater overflow into the lake. The aggressive strategy (http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/59967.html) could help the county and city become national leaders in the green infrastructure movement.
- A 2007 report found that the lake’s water quality is the best it’s been in 40 years.
Commissioner Grannis also noted that in 2009 Governor David A. Paterson announced $21 million in grants and low-interest loans for local clean water projects, $2.1 million in “green innovation” grants for various area communities and a $237,500 grant to the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board for planning activities to address phosphorus levels in Onondaga Lake.
The commissioner stressed that there is much more work to do at Onondaga Lake, from completing a dredging-and-capping plan to remediating industrial waste from the lake bottom to building a groundwater collection barrier along the southwest shore to restoring habitat. In addition, mercury levels in fish remain a concern.
40 Years of Improvement
“Since the first Earth Day in 1970 and the creation that year of the Department of Environmental Conservation, we’ve seen a number of concrete examples of environmental improvements in New York,” Commissioner Grannis said. “Signature water bodies, such as the Hudson River, have made significant comebacks. The number of waterways classified as severely damaged by pollution have declined 88 percent. Wildlife icons, such as the Bald Eagle, have returned.”
“The fact is, as Earth Day turns 40, we’ve made enormous strides in a relatively short amount of time,” Grannis continued. “But it is not time to hoist the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. Not by a long shot. There is plenty of work to do across the state and many new issues to address
