Massive Cleanup Of Onondaga Lake Coming To An End

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A massive cleanup project on Onondaga Lake is coming to an end.

Honeywell's final work of restoring shoreline habitat is slated to conclude this month. The company completed dredging 2.2 million cubic yards of lake bottom in 2014 and capping 475 acres of the bottom this year.

Honeywell project manager John McAuliffe tells the Syracuse Post-Standard that after a dozen trees are planted, the lake cleanup project is finished. But the company is still going to be building trails, fishing piers and wildlife habitat as part of a separate federal settlement.

The lake was declared a Superfund site in 1994. It was a dumping ground for decades by industries including Allied-Signal, which released about 165,000 pounds of mercury into the lake. Allied later merged with Honeywell.