October 2021

URBAN FORESTRY PROJECT COMPLETE IN OSWEGO COUNTY

10/15/2021
By Haichao Wang

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ASLF is proud to announce that after over 2 years of planning, community engagement, and tree planting, we have successfully completed our latest Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) project funded by the US Forest Service, which saw the planting of over 300 native trees and shrubs in Fulton and Oswego. ASLF was not immune to the consequences of COVID-19. The shutdown posed several roadblocks, forcing us to delay the project by 2 planting seasons. Despite these difficulties, we were able to reach our initial goals and objectives without compromise.

ASLF is a longtime advocate for urban forestry in the Central New York region. Over the years, we built many meaningful partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community groups who share an interest in keeping our water and air clean through tree planting. Prior to this newly completed project, ASLF had planted over 1,300 trees in Central New York to manage stormwater runoff, with over 600 of them located in Oswego County. This new project built on what we had already accomplished and continued to target degraded urban sites with large surrounding impervious surfaces and proximity to Lake Ontario’s tributaries. These new trees will not only reduce the amount of contaminated stormwater flowing directly into the waterway, but also help increase urban canopy coverage, restore wildlife habitat, boost biodiversity in the urban ecosystem, improve air quality, build local resilience to climate change, and improve visual quality.

ASLF recognizes the importance of community input and goes to great lengths to ensure that the desire of the local community is the main drive for all of our projects. This GLRI is no difference. We spent the first year of the grant period working closely with municipal agencies, community organizations, and private entities in the County to determine the best available sites for planting. We organized three public meetings to discuss the purpose of the project and hear from local residents. Eventually, six sites in Fulton and one site in Oswego were selected for based on our analysis combined with community input. Among them, two sites are current brownfield reclamation projects: the Oswego Health’s new behavioral health facility on the former Price Chopper site in Oswego, and the redevelopment of the former Nestle parking lot in Fulton. The rest are park lands in Fulton. We used a selection of native trees suitable for the site conditions, with consideration of the community’s preference of tree species and placement. As of May 2021, all planting work has been finished. ASLF is currently working to add the newly planted trees to an interactive map (https://arcg.is/0rKLTm) of our Central New York tree planting projects.

The work is far from finished in Oswego County. The County’s proximity to Lake Ontario and overall low urban canopy coverage make it a crucial location for future planting efforts. With the help and support from City of Fulton and Oswego County Department of Community Development, Tourism, and Planning, ASLF is actively seeking more opportunity for tree planting in Fulton. For GLRI 2021, we have submitted a new proposal to plant 250 street trees in underserved communities in Fulton. Stay tuned for more on ASLF’s continuing work in Oswego County!

ACJ AWAITS CLOSURE. WHAT’S NEXT?

10/15/2021
By Hongbin Gao

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Amended Consent Judgment (ACJ), initially entered in 1998 between Onondaga County, NYS DEC and ASLF, has governed Onondaga County’s water quality improvement obligations for over three decades to tackle the pollution in Onondaga Lake and its tributaries caused by the sewage discharged from the Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant (Metro) and its Combined Sewer System owned and operated by the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection (WEP). ACJ represents a pioneer case in the nation, which, in its latest stipulation in 2009, mandates the inclusion of green infrastructure as complementary technologies to the gray infrastructure, such as treatment and storage facilities, to manage Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). This Gray-and-Green approach helped Onondaga County to achieve a systemwide CSO capture of 97.9% on an annual average basis, meeting and exceeding the ACJ requirement of 95% for CSO reduction by December 31, 2018. The capture rate has been recognized by DEC and ASLF as the last ACJ Annual Report was approved by DEC in 2019.

Per Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s CSO Control Policy (1994), following the abatement programs, a CSO Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) should be developed and implemented to make sure the continued compliance with the applicable water quality standards (WQS). However, the water quality monitoring data collected by Onondaga County indicate that even after achieving 97.9% CSO capture, there are still water quality standard violations for bacteria in Onondaga Creek, Harbor Brook and Ley Creek, both before and after CSO occurrence.

The WQS for a waterbody include the designated uses of the water and the associated water quality criteria that protect and support such designated uses. For instance, by the state fresh surface water classification, all three tributaries mentioned above are mostly C water near their mouths to the lake, with some B in Onondaga Creek; the water quality criteria for bacteria for these waters should allow safe use by primary and secondary contact recreational activities, meaning swimming, boating and fishing, etc. But the accessibility, channelization and other sources of pollution from the urban and suburban landscape render such activities simply unrealistic in these waterways even in any foreseeable future. So, are the current water quality standards still applicable?

This question has been recognized and negotiated by the ACJ parties, and was reflected in the latest administrative consent order entered earlier this year between DEC and Onondaga County. The order lays out a 5-year interim post-ACJ framework to guide continued restoration efforts before an LTCP is fully developed and in place. The state order reaffirms that the County’s CSO discharges still cause or contribute to violations of WQS in the receiving tributaries, and requires the County to develop and implement interim CSO corrective measures, including building more green infrastructure projects, till an approved LTCP is ready for implementation. More importantly, the state order allows the County to perform a Use Attainability Analysis (UAA) for Onondaga Creek, Harbor Brook and Ley Creek, starting a procedure to review and potentially revise the WQS for these CSO receiving waterways.

EPA regulations prohibit removing an existing or actual use from the designated uses for a water body, but for a designated use that has not been attained, it may be removed under limited circumstances, and associated WQS consequently changed. A key component of this procedure is a UAA that needs to demonstrate that the current designated use(s) cannot be achieved using the best available technologies and/or in cost-effective and reasonable way without causing substantial environmental damage or widespread social and economic impacts. The review and revision for WQS require active public involvement in the procedure, to engage citizens, municipalities, industries, environmentalists, universities and other entities in collecting and evaluating information for the decision-making process. More information about the procedure can be found in this Water Quality Handbook.

While DEC, ASLF and Onondaga County had agreed to close the ACJ, COVID delayed its closure. Now that the state consent order has been entered and ready for implementation, judicial closure of this landmark case is on the horizon. The CSO program will enter a new era when the County will be developing a final LTCP and conducting a UAA in the next four and half years, while implementing interim CSO measures. ASLF will continue its involvement in the post-ACJ course of action, assisting the County in public engagement process and implementing green infrastructure through our OMG! program. More information about ACJ, UAA, LTCP and the upcoming public engagement process will be available at www.onondagalake.org.