The primary contaminants of concern at the Harbor Brook site include benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, and mercury. Other contaminants include chlorinated benzenes, dioxins, and furans. 

A plume of a dense oily liquid has been found in the subsurface soils at depths of up to 85 ft. The oil is also present in Harbor Brook sediments and in underlying soils at depths of approximately 7 to 15 feet below the bottom of the brook. Portions of the site have high levels of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, PCBs, and metals, including mercury.

Sediments in Harbor Brook are extremely contaminated.

Harbor Brook

Mercury, PCBs, PAHs, copper and cadmium have been found in the stream sediments of Bloody Brook. In the adjacent soil, cadmium concentrations of up to 5,300 ppm (compared to normal background of <0.5ppm) have been found in soils up to 14 feet below the land surface.

Bloody Brook

Geddes Brook is located in Onondaga County, NY, to the southwest of Onondaga Lake. Geddes Brook originates in the town of Camillus and flows through the town of Geddes before it enters Ninemile Creek.

The LCP Bridge Street site, which includes the West Flume, is a source of mercury and other contaminants to Geddes Brook, Ninemile Creek, and eventually the lake. Geddes Brook also receives surface runoff from roads, and both residential and industrial areas.

Numerous municipal
and industrial/construction and debris landfills (e.g. the Mathews Ave landfill, a Firekeeper site) are located in the watershed of Geddes Brook.

Environmental studies indicate that mercury is transported into Onondaga

Lake from the Geddes Brook/Ninemile Creek system in two ways:

1) A drainage ditch connecting the LCP plant with Geddes Brook (called “West Flume”) has been the main conduit of mercury contamination in the Ninemile Creek watershed. This source has been essentially
eliminated since the cleanup of the West Flume as part of the LCP site remediation.

2) “Pulses” of mercury are mobilized during high-flow periods (e.g. after rainfall). This occurs because mercury-contaminated sediments in the creeks and floodplains are re-suspended and carried out into the lake. This remediation is intended to stop this source of mercury to the lake.

Geddes Brook

Ley Creek flows through a highly urbanized and commercial area in the Town of Salina, just north of the city of Syracuse, NY. Many industrial wastes, including oils containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were discharged into Ley Creek and its branches. PCBs have been found in the dredge spoils at concentrations up to 466 ppm at the site. PCBs have also been found in groundwater in this area at levels up to 10 ppb. 

The general area is served by a public water supply so public exposure to contaminated groundwater is unlikely. However, PCBs are highly bioaccumulative, meaning they build up in the flesh of birds, fish and other animals. PCBs that migrate into Ley Creek will contaminate fish and birds (or people) that eat them.

Ley Creek

Firekeeper Processing Co.

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