Onondaga Nation criticizes plans for new amphitheater at waste site

Onondaga Nation leaders are speaking out against a proposed amphitheater on Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, N.Y., saying that the project will cover up rather than clean up a former industrial waste dump at the site.

The proposed location on the lake's west shore was once a dumping site for Allied Chemical Co., which deposited over 60 feet of fill material from 1926 to 1944. Rather than remove the waste, the amphitheater plans call for additional cover and building on top of the hazardous fill.

Below is a map of the proposed amphitheater.

The amphitheater represents a significant portion of a $100 million development plan for Onondaga Lake that also includes infrastructure improvements, a completing a trail around the lake and various projects linking the lakefront to the nearby state fairgrounds. The development project will be financed in part by the county's recently-reached agreement with nearby Indian tribes, guaranteeing the county $2.5 million per year in revenue from casinos on native land.

Onondaga Nation lawyer Joe Heath criticized the development plan as a missed opportunity to clean up the former waste dump. "This presents a golden opportunity to do the right thing, which is to clean the waste out of there and return it to a natural state," Heath told Syracuse.com.

Sid Hill, the nation's spiritual leader, maintained that the waste beds continue to pollute Onondaga Lake. He told Syracuse.com, "How are you going to clean it up if you keep covering it up? It seems like you're going backward instead of forward." 

In 2009, the EPA conducted a Human Health Risk Assessment before the county began constructing the running and biking trail around Onondaga Lake. The report said that if visitors were to repeatedly visit the areas that passed over the waste beds, they could risk health effects from inhaling manganese. The EPA suggested the county build fences on to keep hikers and bikers on the trail in areas where it passed near the dump site. 

Below is draft environmental impact statement for the amphitheater project.