A draft environmental impact statement delving into every corner of the Micron project in central New York is now public.
It was 2 1/2 years in the making, but the long awaited document is now ready to read. Most of the thousands and thousands of pages of the draft document are charts and indexes.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said if you want to get a quick take, start off reading the 20-page executive summary.
“By looking at the summary, it will certainly, it's comprehensive, it's very good, and it will give you the ideas of your certain interest points that you have related to this,” McMahon said.
From there, the report will outline everything from land acquisitions to make new wetlands, to mitigating traffic issues. McMahon said the construction of a rail spur and new exits onto Interstate 481 will help minimize the impact of construction.
“The amount of trucks that would come in and out of that community each day would be onerous,” he said. “And so by building this, that will take the ability to bring all that fill into the site and other materials by rail. And Micron will use it for the next 16 years.”
For those worried about the project’s impact on wetlands, McMahon says there’s good news, since Micron will add two wetlands for every one wetland it takes away during construction.
"The fact that Micron is restoring two to one wetlands is very noble and you know the over 1,300 acres that will simply be forever wild in the Oneida River catch basin, that that's really, really positive too,” he said.
The community now has 45 days to sift through the report and make their feelings known. That includes a three-part public hearing July 24 in Liverpool.
There is opposition to that timeline, with a coalition of environmental groups planning to deliver a petition to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency asking for a longer and more inclusive input process.
McMahon hopes most questions are answered by what he calls the most exhaustive environmental report in the country for a development of this nature. McMahon said it is a monumental moment in a project that will bring thousands of jobs, boost the economy to the tune of $9.5 billion, and forever change the central New York landscape.
“Outside of the announcement that we won the project, and maybe in Micron's mind, them getting some very good federal grants, this is probably the most important day in the process to date,” he said.
The environmental impact statement puts Micron on the path to complete the environmental review in the fall, with an expected groundbreaking in late November.
