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Stand Up for Cayuga Lake!

In the heart of upstate NY lies 11 lakes called the Finger Lakes. The lakes are long, narrow, and oriented in the north–south direction. Carved out by glaciers around two million years ago, these lakes are now the home of over 1.2 million people and boasts a thriving economy in the wine and craft beer industries. Cayuga Lake, the second largest of the Finger Lakes, is about 40 miles long and reaches a depth of approximately 435 ft at its deepest point. As the main source of public drinking water for at least 40,000 people, it is important to safeguard the health of the lake.

Cayuga Lake might look pristine, but it is threatened by industry and it is already showing signs of distress.

Cayuga Lake is being jeopardized by many factors such as invasive species, inadequate treatment of wastewater, and emerging contaminants. Additionally, more intense weather events caused by climate change increases farm runoff and erosion of silt, leading to nutrient loading. Data indicates the increase in nutrients coupled with higher temperatures has been leading to harmful algal blooms.

Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) is an independent advocacy group that is working to protect Cayuga Lake. We are addressing industry polluters in an effort to highlight the need for remediation of industrial contamination. Based in Ithaca, CLEAN is working with researchers, local environmental groups, and a legal team to address water quality issues on Cayuga Lake. We are affiliated with the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. CLEAN has fiscal sponsorship through the Chris Dennis Environment Fund. We are working to hold industry polluters accountable and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation responsible for protecting a resource that belongs to ALL of us: Cayuga Lake - from the waves up above to the salt down below.

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New York State Needs Legislation to Adequately Regulate Salt Mines

Sign a Letter to Gov. Hochul Here

Sign a Letter to Secretary Su Here


Current Projects

Salt Mining:

Every day Cargill, Inc. operates a salt mine 2200 feet below Cayuga Lake with mining through permitted reserves under about 22% of Cayuga Lake. As the mine passes Taughannock Park and approaches Cayuga Power, the strong limestone that helps prevent the lake from hydraulically connecting with the mine is thinner due to glacial gouging in the last ice age. CLEAN’s geology advisers believe mining in these northern reserves should end and that Cargill should not be allowed to ream a 4th shaft at 1001 Ridge Road, Lansing, NY. Even if the mine closed today, there is a very real risk of the mine flooding and of saturated brine then venting into Cayuga Lake for more than 200 years. As a result of salt mining, the sodium content of the lake water is already twice the level recommended for people suffering from hypertension.

Coal Ash Landfill:

CLEAN is currently addressing issues regarding retiring the Cayuga Power Plant on the east shore of Cayuga Lake and concerns that leachate from Heorot Energy’s coal ash landfill could be affecting groundwater and water quality of the lake. CLEAN hired a consulting firm to review records and options for remediation of Cayuga Power’s coal ash landfill. Environmental researchers at CLEAN continue to sample and analyze discharges from the landfill into Cayuga Lake, which contain heavy metals and which total up to 30M gallons per year.

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs):

In a study to determine causes of HABs, CLEAN researchers have been monitoring water quality on Cayuga Lake with a Eureka Manta+35 Water Probe which records lake water quality measures such as pH, temperature, conductivity, depth, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, sodium, chloride, chlorophyll a, and cyanobacteria. CLEAN has recently resumed water quality research work on Discover Cayuga’s weekly cruises on the MV Teal at the south end of Cayuga Lake. Some CLEAN members are trained as “HABs harriers” and patrol portions of lake shoreline in cooperation with the DEC, Community Science Institute, & the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network.

Latest News

  • Our Children’s Earth v. Cargill
    May 23, 2020
  • Cargill Agrees to Pay $318,000, Curb Salt Dust and Salt Runoff into Cayuga Lake in Proposed Bid to Settle a Federal Lawsuit
    May 23, 2020
  • Salting our freshwater lakes
    December 2, 2019
  • More Salt in Our Water Is Creating Scary New ‘Chemical Cocktails’
    February 19, 2019
  • Community Rallies for Cayuga Lake’s Day in Court
    November 26, 2018
  • Despite a century of salt mining, Cargill getting local pushback on environmental issues
    December 14, 2017, Ithaca Journal
  • SHOW TIME! Calls Mount for End to Secrecy at Cargill’s Cayuga Salt Mine
    December 8, 2017, Waterfront Online Blog
  • Legal struggle over salt mine continues
    November 29, 2017, Ithaca Times
  • Letters – I Am Not A Bond Villain – Setting The Record Straight
    September 29, 2017, Lansing Star
  • Cuomo Risks Turning Cayuga Into New York’s Great Salt Lake
    September 15, 2017, Waterfront Online Blog
  • Assembly members call to stop Cayuga Lake salt mining expansion
    July 21, 2017, Spectrum News
  • Letters – The Risk of Continued Salt Mining Under Cayuga Lake
    July 21, 2017, Lansing Star

See more News

CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

3 hours ago

CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

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CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

3 weeks ago

CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now
Dear Friends of Cayuga Lake, TAKE ACTION NOW! New York State Needs Legislation To Adequately Regulate Salt MinesWatch the CLEAN Spring Forum HEREThe Salt Mine Under the Lake: What Are the Risks and Options?www.youtube.com/watch?v=eooiq_Az1CgThe Finger Lakes provide an invaluable natural resource that grows increasingly valuable as climate change is melting the world’s glaciers and ice sheets globally. The sodium content of the water of both lakes is already more than twice that which is safe for people with hypertension, which may be as high as half the adult US population. Please join us in urging Governor Hochul and Secretary Su to address inadequate salt mining and road salt regulations. Sign a Letter to Gov. Hochul Heredocs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnRASDRK-o6eQzAK5tnOXsqkCbX52y1_0gfU4Z3wCPJqsSQA/viewformSign a Letter to Secretary Su Heredocs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6rpdTezdQ6hh9oHcVp_kv2JkqcKbEp1pGwHTRJwkuh48oXA/viewformLetter to Gov. HochulThe Honorable Kathy HochulGovernor of New York StateNYS State Capitol BuildingAlbany, NY 12224Re: Safety issues at Cayuga Lake and Cayuga Salt MineDear Governor Hochul:Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) is a citizen group working to protect Cayuga Lake from industrial contamination including salt from Cayuga Salt Mine, coal ash leachate from Cayuga Operating Company, and PFAS compounds flowing into the lake from several facility outfalls.We are writing to share our concern regarding the on-going lack of effective NYS laws to adequately protect lakes and other waterways from increasing salinization caused by salt mining and applications of road salt each winter. New York State lacks the needed legislation to adequately regulate it two room and pillar salt mines as well as the two solution salt mines at the south end of Seneca Lake. At the same time, New York needs to more carefully regulate the application of salt to roads, parking lots and sidewalks each winter.We urge you and your staff to consider the following:1. Passage of effective mining laws. New York State’s Mined Land Reclamation Law—which was written largely to regulate surface mining–needs to be rewritten to:a. prohibit room and pillar mining under large lakes and riversb. prohibit solution salt mining under large lakes and riversc. implement rigorous use of the Environmental Impact Studies as part of mine permit issuance and renewald. create and enforce effective mine egress regulations for room and pillar minese. require rigorous environmental bonding to pay for potential harm to waterways and soilf. require rigorous mine closure planning for both solution mining cavities and for room and pillar mines including whether salt mine voids need to be conserved for alternative uses rather than flooded.2. Current mine egress issues at Cayuga Mine. Cargill recently completed Shaft 4 which effectively shortens in-mine commute times for miners to exit the mine by about 30 minutes. The shaft also provides another means for miners to reach the surface. On the other hand, neither Cargill nor the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration are enforcing Federal Law 30 CFR § 57.11050a which requires operators of underground non-metal mines to provide miners with: (bolding added for emphasis)“two or more separate, properly maintained escapeways to the surface from the lowest levels which are so positioned that damage to one shall not lessen the effectiveness of the others.”A 2017 Cargill mine map shows the southern end of NW3, the only tunnel that miners can use to exit from current active mining faces at the north end of Cayuga Mine. There are four rows of small yielding pillars within the <400-foot-wide tunnel that create a total of five parallel lanes or passageways within the tunnel. It is not correct for MSHA and Cargill to be treating each lane or passageway as a separate escapeway. A fire, explosion, or mine collapse in one or more lanes could readily “lessen the effectiveness of the others.”3. Cayuga and Seneca Lake Issues. Cayuga Lake contains 9.5 cubic kilometers and Seneca Lake 15.9 cubic kilometers of potable drinking water. These two lakes are the largest of the 11 Finger Lakes and >100 years of salt mining at the south end of each lake is thought to have more than doubled the sodium content of both lakes. These lakes are invaluable natural resource that grows increasingly valuable as climate change is melting the world’s glaciers and ice sheets globally. The sodium content of the water of both lakes is already more than twice that which is safe for people with hypertension, which may be as high as half the adult US population. The Syracuse salt formation extends from Syracuse NY to Detroit MI so it makes no sense to allow salt mining underneath large lakes just to accommodate a mining company’s preference to only negotiate with one owner and to enjoy the higher extraction ratios and thus higher profits that mining under water often enables.We urge you to consider putting an immediate moratorium on mining salt under and near all large lakes in New York. The DEC could be directed to require Cargill to halt its room and pillar mining under Cayuga Lake as well requiring Cargill and U.S. Salt to halt all solution mining under and near Seneca Lake and to shift to mining under land with a geologically reasonable setback from these lakes. (It’s not clear whether it would be physically possible for Cargill to adequately seal the existing connections between their existing on-land shafts and the mine under the lake so as to enable these shafts to be used for under-land mining without increasing future risks to Cayuga Lake.)Sincerely yours,The UndersignedSIGN HERE: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnRASDRK-o6eQzAK5tnOXsqkCbX52y1_0gfU4Z3wCPJqsSQA/viewformLetter to Secretary SuThe Honorable Julie SuActing U.S. Secretary of LaborFrances Perkins Building200 Constitution Avenue NWWashington, D.C., U.S. Re: Failure of your Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to effectively enforce egress regulations at Cayuga Salt Mine in upstate New York Dear Secretary Su: Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) is a citizen group working to protect Cayuga Lake from industrial contamination including salt from Cayuga Salt Mine, coal ash leachate from Cayuga Operating Company, and PFAS compounds flowing into the lake. We are writing to share our concern with you about MSHA’s failure to effectively enforce Federal Law 30 CFR § 57.11050a in the Cayuga Salt Mine. Cargill, reportedly North America’s largest private corporation, employs about 200 people for its Cayuga Salt Mine in Lansing, New York. Three shifts of miners work in the mine up to 363 days of the year, barring shutdowns for seismic events or MSHA-imposed closures for needed maintenance and repairs. Federal Law 30 CFR § 57.11050a (see attached MSDA brochure) requires operators of underground non-metal mines to provide miners with: (bolding added for emphasis) two or more separate, properly maintained escapeways to the surface from the lowest levels which are so positioned that damage to one shall not lessen the effectiveness of the others.A 2017 Cargill map of Cayuga Mine shows the southern end of NW3, the only tunnel that exists for miners to use to exit from current active mining faces at the north end of Cayuga Mine. There are four rows of small yielding pillars within the <400-foot-wide NW3 tunnel that create a total of five parallel lanes within the tunnel. (Each black dot represents a small yielding pillar that measures about 12’x18’ by ten feet tall.) It is simply not reasonable for MSHA and Cargill to be treating each lane within the NW3 tunnel as a separate escapeway. A fire, explosion, or mine collapse in one or more lanes could readily “lessen the effectiveness of the others.” We recommend that MSHA be instructed to review this dangerous situation. We hope for the safety of Cargill’s miners that going forward MSHA will only allow mining where Federal Law 30 CFR § 57.11050a can be meaningfully implemented.Sincerely yours,The UndersignedSIGN HERE: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6rpdTezdQ6hh9oHcVp_kv2JkqcKbEp1pGwHTRJwkuh48oXA/viewformThank you, CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now ... See MoreSee Less

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CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

3 weeks ago

CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

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CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now

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CLEAN - Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now
It’s lake season!! ... See MoreSee Less

Lake & Land Tour to the famous Taughannock Waterfall

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Join us for a one-of-a-kind Finger Lakes opportunity for a combined 4-hour lake & land experience from our home dock at the Allan H. Treman State Marina to t...

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#CayugaLake_EAN

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