Earth Day marks an annual renewal of our collective commitment to be good caretakers of the earth and all beings here. A Better Future for Onondaga Lake (BFOL) and Friends of the Onondaga Lake Bald Eagles (FOLBE) encourage you to honor Earth Day in CNY by joining the ongoing effort to protect the habitat of Bald Eagles, a US symbol and a bird sacred to the Onondaga and other Haudenosaunee. Avid bird photographers observe that there are at least twenty bald eagles currently roosting at “Murphy’s Island” on Onondaga Lake. In the winter months these numbers increase into the hundreds.
Onondaga County begins construction on a 1/3 mile trail on Murphy’s Island as soon as Monday of next week. While the County states the trail will close in the winter, a trail will open the understory of roosting trees, leaving eagles vulnerable to disturbance by trespassers and predators. Alternatives exist on Harborside Dr. or Hiawatha Blvd., and can be open year-round. This trail will not help complete Loop-the-Lake; it is a dead-end called the “Southeast Extension.” Onondaga Audubon led the resistance to this trail: over 3500 Onondaga County residents signed a petition against it. 40 community members opposed the County’s NYSDEC Wetland Permit application at a public hearing. NYSDEC issued the permit anyway.
In addition to the disruption of wildlife, the public is uninformed about the human health risks of recreating at Onondaga Lake. The lake and surrounding shoreline remain part of a toxic Super Fund site where 30 industrial pollutants, including numerous cancer-causing chemicals and neurotoxins are still in soil and sediment. Murphy’s Island is contaminated with 15 of these. Local academics and medical professionals have publicly warned that exposure is dangerous, especially for children. The county has no plan for soil remediation at the Southeast Extension, and cannot ensure visitors remain on the trail. Workers risk exposure and health issues.
“Onondaga County is building this trail before the DEC has any plan for remediation. The county originally passed a resolution that this land would be returned to the Onondaga Nation, but then made the excuse that it is too expensive to clean up to the Onondaga Nation’s standards,” notes Lindsay Speer, longtime lake activist and member of Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON). “Now they want to let the public recreate on what is essentially a landfill that has not been cleaned up? Building a trail prior to remediation puts the public at risk, prevents a more comprehensive clean-up of the site and is a bad investment of taxpayer dollars.”
We urge concerned citizens to continue to contact your Onondaga County Legislator, County Executive Ryan McMahon, and the Onondaga County Office of the Environment. Tell them to stop this waste of taxpayer funds on a short-sighted, environmentally hostile project which endangers public health and creates liability for the county.
Protesters demonstrate against Onondaga County’s proposed shoreline trail.
Eagle photos by Greg Craybas/Protestors Mike Greenlar
