Central New York can now get a look at potential plans for a public beach on Onondaga Lake. A $300,000 state-funded feasibility study was released over the weekend. If Onondaga County lawmakers like what they see, swimming could come back to the remediated lake for the first time in 80 years.
County Environmental Director Travis Glazier said the study shows the feasibility of a new beach in the Willow Bay section of the lake that would include a new bathhouse, picnic and play areas and a new pathway and promenade. The whole thing would cost $2.8 million dollars.
"We tried to be very conservative. We really did," Glazier said. "Because you need to offer some basic amenities, you need changing rooms. So we did try to scale this so it would be not a very ambitious overdesigned bit of infrastructure."
This study caps off years of speculation about whether anyone would ever be able to swim at a public beach, in what was once called the most polluted lake in the country. It follows decades of a cleanup process, overseen by the state and federal governments, dredging up hard metals spewed in the lake by manufacturers, and a redesign of treating sewage waste that used to routinely end up in the lake.
While a public survey showed more than 30,000 people willing to jump in what has been deemed clean water, there are still concerns from environmentalists. A group called A Better Future for Onondaga Lake and its allies, say 85 percent of industrial contaminants remain in the lake, and there has been no testing of sediments in the vicinity of Willow Bay. Beach opponent Lindsay Speer said this was not a complete cleanup of the lake.
"Any decision to build a beach will come back and haunt us. Onondaga County is creating an attractive nuisance and is encouraging people to forget what is buried below," Speer said. "I cannot think of a more irresponsible body of water on which to build a beach."
Glazier said those issues really don’t have anything to do with this particular feasibility study.
"DEC, EPA, DOH have certified that Onondaga Lake is acceptable for swimming in a public bathing area, and so we’re operating under that assumption," said Glazier. "People have indicated in the comment process that they don’t agree with that. That’s really not in the scope of what the feasibility is meant to resolve."
Once the final comment period ends in early April, a final report will be available midyear. It will then be up to county lawmakers to decide if they want to use that report as a basis to bring public swimming back to the lake.
Onondaga Lake Beach Feasibility Report by WRVO on Scribd
