The Ithaca Gun Company's former site has been the subject of much controversy as all groups involved have resisted taking responsibility for a potentially expensive cleanup after investigators uncovered lead contamination there. A group of Ithaca residents responded in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protesting the current settlement for the factory's cleanup.

Longfellow pictured an arrow shot into the air as the perfect metaphor for life's mysteries and the unknowable implications of our actions. But here, he might have pictured lead -- millions upon millions of tiny lead shotgun pellets, each about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, all fired into the air over the course of 100 years of manufacturing and testing firearms at a place called the Ithaca Gun Company.

Although there are health risks with visiting a lead-contaminated area of Fall Creek gorge near Ithaca Falls, most people visiting the site probably have not had enough exposure to the toxic element to cause problems, a state health department official said Friday.

Members of an Ithaca company and a citizens' group are calling for the immediate cleanup of the popular swimming, hiking and fishing area. As early as 1995, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has documented high levels of lead and visible lead shot there stemming from the defunct Ithaca Gun factory nearby.

ITHACA -- An Ithaca company and a citizen's group are calling for the immediate cleanup of a lead-contaminated site on land the City of Ithaca plans to turn into a park.

The city purchased the more than 10-acre piece of Fall Creek gorge, that includes Ithaca Falls, from Cornell University in March for $1. Now, it's faced with the cleanup of the site between Stewart Avenue and Lake Street, where the state Department of Environmental Conservation has documented high levels of lead contamination from the Ithaca Gun Co.'s former factor in 1995.