The Onondaga Lake Management Plan provides a plan of action for restoring the ecological health and recreational uses of Onondaga Lake.

Onondaga Lake Management Conference

Due to the complexity of the Onondaga Lake system and the continued impact of numerous pollutants, a comprehensive and coordinated approach to the goal of reclamation was required. In response, the U.S. Congress created the Onondaga Lake Management Conference (OLMC) in 1990 (Public Law 101-596, section 401) and charged it with responsibility for:

(1) the development, in the two-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, of a comprehensive restoration, conservation and management plan for Onondaga Lake that recommends priority corrective actions and compliance schedules for the cleanup of such Lake;

and

(2) the coordination of the implementation of such plan by the State of New York, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and all local agencies, governments, and other groups participating in such management conference.

The Plan

The completion of the Onondaga Lake Management Plan (the Plan) represented the fulfillment of the OLMC's prime responsibility, to detail a plan of action for restoring the ecological health and recreational uses of Onondaga Lake. The Plan was intended to be dynamic, to spur action and to support the OLMC's second responsibility; the coordination of implementation of the recommendations contained in the Plan.

The Onondaga Lake Management Plan contains specific recommendations which, if implemented, would lead to a cleaner Lake and increased usage by the public. Where possible, each recommendation identifies the party that should undertake the effort and provides an estimate of the time frame within which it should be completed.

At the time the Plan was written, it was understood that the problems of Onondaga Lake are extremely complex and their solution would be influenced by a variety of technical, legal, social and political factors, which are in many cases external to the OLMC. As a result, although the conferees were confident that Lake restoration could be accomplished, and must be done as rapidly as possible, accurate specification of target time frames for all of the recommendations in the Plan was not possible at the time the Plan was developed. If the time frame was not explicitly stated, then the OLMC believed that factors external to the OLMC would dictate the speed of completion.

Management Plan and Amended Consent Judgment Relationship

The approval and implementation of the Amended Consent Judgment (ACJ) was consistent with and supportive of the OLMC's purpose. On September 9, 1999, the OLMC, through Resolution 99-1, approved and endorsed the ACJ and incorporated it into and made it part of its 1993 "A Plan of Action." It was further resolved that any portion of the 1993 Plan that was not consistent with the ACJ was to be removed and deleted.

For More Information

The full text of the Onondaga Lake Management Plan is available for browsing and downloading in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.