Opposition growing to reopening scrapyard near Onondaga Lake

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): Add an assemblyman and a group calling itself the Coalition for Onondaga Lake to the chorus of voices opposing the reopening of a scrapyard at the former Roth Steel site overlooking Onondaga Lake.

Assemblyman William Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, said he will oppose any effort by Canadian scrap magnate Herbert Black to open a metal processing facility at the Roth property on Hiawatha Boulevard West.

It's not known who is behind the Coalition for Onondaga Lake, but an environmental law firm working for the group sent a letter to city officials this week urging them to fight a reopening of the scrapyard. The Knauf Shaw law firm said the site is already highly contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and said it was prepared to take action if the city wasn't.

They join lakefront area developer Len Montreal and City Auditor Martin Masterpole, who have called for the city to oppose any new scrapyard from operating on the Roth property, which is separated from Onondaga Lake by a railroad line.

Roth Steel Corp. closed in February 2014 and filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy three months later. Two weeks ago, a bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of the Roth site to Black's Montreal-based American Iron & Metal.

Black has not said what his plans are for the site. But since he is in the scrap business, his pending purchase has raised concerns that he will try to reopen the scrapyard.

Magnarelli said nearly $1 billion in private and public funds have been spent cleaning up Onondaga Lake and redeveloping the Syracuse lakefront. He said it doesn't make sense to allow another potentially polluting operation like a scrapyard to open near the lake.

"It would be contrary to everything this community is trying to do," he said.

Magnarelli sent a letter state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials saying he was "extremely concerned" about the potential for the Roth site to once again become an operating scrapyard because of the risk it would pose to the lake and the surrounding community.

"I believe that there are ample and significant environmental concerns which should engage your departments to investigate and remediate this site for the health and safety of this area before it is allowed to be once again used as a scrap metal yard," he said.

Magnarelli said the scrapyard operated by Roth "was not adequately maintained for years and it appears that no environmental safeguards were in place." He sent a copy of his letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeking his support.

Coalition for Onondaga Lake has started an online petition opposing a scrapyard at the Roth site.

Alan Knauf, a Rochester attorney representing the group, said in a letter to Syracuse officials Wednesday that the city should declare the special permits under which Roth Steel operated from 1966 until last year invalid.

Knauf said Roth essentially abandoned its permits when it shut down and declared bankruptcy last year. Furthermore, Roth violated provisions of the permits by, among other things, processing metal on its entire 23.9-acre site even though the permits only allowed it to use half of the site, the attorney said.

Knauf did not return phone calls from syracuse.com seeking comment Thursday and Friday. His letter and the group's Facebook page do not say who is behind the group. But Knauf's letter said more than 500 people have signed the group's petition.

A post on the group's Facebook page shows the words, "Don't Scrap Onondaga Lake," over a photo of the lake.

Tim Carroll, director of mayoral initiatives, said the city law department is reviewing the information in the letter and researching the zoning history of the property.

The Roth site has a long history of pollution from its many decades of use as a metal processing facility. A November 2007 report prepared by Passero Associates, a Rochester engineering firm hired by Roth Steel, said PCB concentrations of 25,000 micrograms per liter were found in a groundwater sample collected from the northwest corner of the site — far above the allowable level of 0.09 micrograms per liter.

Passero said the finding indicated the site from which the sample was taken was "grossly contaminated" by what was likely PCB-containing oil typically found in transformers or capacitors. The finding was reported to the Department of Environmental Conservation, the company said in its report.

It's unclear how much of the contamination remains on the site and who will be responsible for cleaning it up now that Roth has gone out of business. The DEC has said Roth was under a consent order requiring the company to investigate, address and remediate contamination at the facility. The department said a portion of the work was completed but that it had required additional investigatory work, in addition to a remedial work plan, to address contamination.

Courtesy:www.syracuse.com