Cayuga Coal Ash Disposal Landfill has 55 groundwater monitoring wells, 50 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between February 01, 2010 and September 01, 2015. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of boron, molybdenum, manganese, sulfate, strontium, arsenic, selenium, thallium, nickel, lead, cobalt, cadmium, copper, nitrate, beryllium, fluoride and mercury.
Site descriptionNew York's Cayuga Power Plant, owned by Upstate New York Power Producers Cayuga Operating Company, LLC, is located on Cayuga Lake near Lansing, New York. The 306 MW coal-fired power plant began operating in the 1950s as Milliken Station. Coal ash from the site is disposed of at the Cayuga Ash Disposal Facility, which, as of 2012, also received some fly ash from Cornell University's heating plant. The ash disposal facility consists of two landfills and a leachate pond that discharges to Cayuga Lake.
Cayuga Power Plant is listed among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proven damage cases, indicating that it has polluted groundwater or surface water at levels which threaten human health and the environment. For more information regarding the Cayuga Power Plant, see EIP's 2010 report, In Harm's Way.
Note that this is not the same coal plant as Indiana's Cayuga Station.