Washington, DC – CHIPS Communities United, a coalition of unions and community groups; Sierra Club, the oldest national environmental group in the U.S.; and the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), a Silicon Valley-based organization working to clean up the semiconductor industry since the 1970’s, raised concerns about Micron’s PFAS releases in response to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) draft permit for the costly expansion of the Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant, operated by Onondaga County. This plant will be expanded to treat industrial wastewater from Micron’s planned chip factory in Clay. The draft permit allows Micron to release PFAS, also known as toxic “forever chemicals,” into the Oneida River, which ultimately flows into Lake Ontario. The three groups call for more monitoring and stricter limits on PFAS to protect public safety and human health.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars are proposed to be spent on this project, yet unless the draft permit is changed, it will not safeguard the community from PFAS pollution,” said Judith Barish, coalition director of CHIPS Communities United.
“It’s no secret semiconductor manufacturing uses hundreds of different PFAS chemicals in a thousand different applications,” said Lenny Siegel, Executive Director of the Center for Public Environment Oversight. “This permit does nothing to require that PFAS used at Micron’s factory will be destroyed. They will ultimately end up in biosolids, the river, or the atmosphere.”
PFAS are highly persistent and mobile in the environment, easily traveling through streams, rivers, and other water bodies, including drinking water sources. Because they break down very slowly, PFAS can easily bioaccumulate in human beings, wildlife, and the environment over time. PFAS are highly toxic and linked to serious health problems.
The draft permit only proposes pollution limits for PFOA and PFOS, and only requires the facility to test for 40 PFAS chemicals, but with thousands of PFAS in existence, including hundreds used in semiconductor manufacturing and constantly evolving new compounds, the proposed testing method (EPA Method 1633/1633A) is inadequate for detecting the full range of PFAS in Micron’s wastewaters. Studies conducted at Cornell University (2021 & 2023) and Nankai University in China found that wastewater from semiconductor factories is brimming with hundreds of PFAS compounds, with over 90% of them likely to be missed by conventional analyses such as EPA Method 1633.
“We call on NYSDEC to expand monitoring and establish limits on PFAS discharged by the Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant to protect public health and the environment,” said Julie MacNamara, the National Water Projects Coordinator for Clean Water Action. “There is no known safe level of these persistent chemicals; we don’t want them in our waters.”
“The current treatment technologies look promising for keeping PFAS and other toxic chemicals out of the river,” said Don Hughes, environmentalist and scientist with the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, “but testing is needed to assure compliance. Furthermore, those same toxic chemicals will be concentrated in waste solids. What happens to those waste solids? They will invariably contaminate some other community hosting a landfill or worse yet, spread on farmland.”
“The CNY community has a right to know what chemicals Micron will use and deserves enforceable commitments from Micron that they will adhere to the highest standards for handling and disposing of hazardous waste in order to adequately protect workers and the community from exposure,” said Khadeejah Ahmad, a Syracuse-based organizer at Jobs to Move America (JMA). “Micron must commit to transparently reporting the types and quantities of chemicals used, minimizing its use of toxic chemicals, and using wastewater technologies that eliminate forever chemicals, and also commit to the long-term monitoring of water and air quality in the affected areas.”
The draft permit is the responsibility of Onondaga County and raises questions about whether the county will be able and willing to meet treatment standards. To protect public health and the environment, CHIPS Communities United, Sierra Club, and CPEO recommend strict controls to prevent PFAS contamination in Central New York, consistent with federal and state law as well as EPA guidance. NYSDEC should amend the permit to:
- Significantly expand requirements to monitor, identify, quantify, and characterize all PFAS discharged by Micron.
- Increase the universe of PFAS being regulated to include those known to be used by Micron.
- Establish a goal of complete elimination of PFAS discharges.
- Require the use of treatment methods that destroy PFAS, rather than simply filter PFAS.
- Require that all reported data be made publicly available online within 30 days of collection.
For the full list of recommendations submitted by CHIPS Communities United, Sierra Club, and the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, click here.
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