The Onondaga County government Office of the Environment is currently carrying out a $440,000 feasibility study using taxpayers' state and county funds for a bathing beach at Willow Bay on Onondaga Lake. The final products will be a shovel-ready design and model contracts for construction. 

The county government maintains that the lake is safe for recreation of all kinds. However, public officials are using criteria that do not include long-term exposure to the 26 chemical industrial contaminants that are still present at the bottom of the lake of this superfund site. The false information being spread will encourage contact and expose persons that are unaware of the risk. They are recklessly encouraging use of the lake in ways that could expose members of the public to unacceptable health risks without their knowledge.

Onondaga County officials should not devote public resources to promoting activities that will bring people into contact with the water and sediments of the lake. They should focus instead on protecting our community from the toxic hazards still present there. Therefore, we, the undersigned, urge Onondaga County to cease all consideration of a beach on Onondaga Lake immediately. Instead, the county should listen to Indigenous community members and environmentalists calling for efforts to heal the lake and ensure a more complete cleanup.