Law students file complaint, challenges Midland sewage plan

The idea of a raw sewage plant sending untreated waste into Onondaga Creek prompted Midland community members to join with the Syracuse University public interest law firm.

The firm filed a complaint Saturday against the Onondaga County government challenging the county's decision to build a sewage plant in a predominantly black community, said Alma Lowry, visiting professor at the College of Law and director of the Syracuse University public interest law firm.

The administrative complaint, filed under Title VI on behalf of the Partnership of Onondaga Creek, asks the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the Midland Avenue Regional Treatment Facility, a sewage plant, claiming that the plant violates environmental justice.

"They didn't look at the African-American community and how they've been disturbed for the past 50 years through industrialization," said Shaunte Gordon, a second-year law student representing the partnership along with Gemma Mondala, also a law school student. "They need to take into account the history of the people more than the physical surroundings."

Marty Farrell, communications director for Onondaga County office of county executive, said the country was given a federal court order to install an RTF to clean up the lake. The site was chosen because the necessary pipes already existed in the Midland community area.

"There's a group out there saying this is environmental racism," he said. "Where the pipes go into the water - where pollution enters the creek and ultimately into the lake - that's the only place we can add it."

Gordon said the community would be satisfied with an underground system of sewage pipe lines.

"In response to the neighborhood complaints, there's already a considerable amount of underground pipes," Farrell said.

But the partnership believes if the pipes were in a wealthier community, the county would have found a way to keep them underground, said Aggie Lane, spokeswomen for the partnership.

Lane said the county is unconsciously showing discrimination to the community.

"The county doesn't see the community - they don't see us as power brokers. The homes are modest, and it's low income," she said.

Lane questions how the county managed to plan an underground storage system for Schiller Park, a Syracuse neighborhood city on the north side that is 75 percent white, but can't plan it for the Midland neighborhood

"We want the EPA to come look at the discriminatory practices," Lane said. "We want to get back to the negotiating tables."

The county has been negotiating with the Midland community for over five years, Lane said.

Lowry said the RTF in Midland will mean raw sewage will continue to leak into Onondaga Creek.

The creek runs through the Midland community, which is 83 percent black. The city of Syracuse is 25 percent black, and Onondaga County is only 10 percent.

"The county tells us they chose this particular site because it's the easiest place to design without adding pipes," Lowry said. "We are not saying that they are being discriminatory on purpose. We are saying that what they are doing is harmful. Title VI covers not only intentional and willful discrimination, but also anything that creates discrimination."

Once the complaint is received by the EPA, they will check it over to make sure it meets minimal requirements and that it has been filed correctly, Lowry said. Then the EPA will have 180 days to investigate the claim.

Lowry said the partnership would like to have the matter informally resolved with the county. "We hope that the EPA would be able to bring the county back to the table."

Farrell said there were a number of legal issues with the city and community groups that has delayed the RTF project, which was started in the late 1980s.

"We're not even going to start construction until later this year," he said.

The $54 million sewage treatment plant will be built in the area of Midland and Cortland avenues and Oxford and Blaine streets.

Lane, who lives two blocks from the site on Midland Avenue, said she hopes the complaint will help the county come to an agreement for underground sewage.

"The community's been trying to rebuild. This puts a damper on that kind of effort," she said.

Gordon said the sewage plant would make the creek a permanent eyesore in the middle of the neighborhood.

As of right now, raw sewage is leaked into the creek. The proposed RTF plant would allow the sewage to come into the plant, be treated and then release the partially treated sewage into the creek.

"There would be over 40 different chlorine by-products (from the plant), smoke stacks with a potential for fumes - all this in the middle of a neighborhood," Gordon said.

She called the release of the partially treated sewage into the stream, the plan supported by the county, the lesser of the two evils.

"But both are bad," she said. "Forty years ago, we had fish there. The partnerships revitalization efforts are going to be totally mute after the installment (of the plant)."

Lane said the Onondaga Creek is treated like a sewage line but would be a wonderful asset to the community if they could revitalize it.

Lane said that since the issue has been so public and with the support of the "prestigious" SU law firm that the EPA will take a serious look at the complaint.

"I hope people never assume again that because of ethnicity and low income that their lives don't count," Lane said.