Sarah Mearhoff

Assemblywoman Barbara LIfton wrote a second letter to the NYSDEC Commissioner pushing against Cargill, Inc.'s salt mining under Cayuga Lake. Sarah Mearhoff


Cayuga Lake may not be seeing much activity on its surface lately as Ithaca’s temperatures continue to fall, but deep under the lake's shore more than 200 employees continue to operate a 13,000-acre salt mine.

Assemblywoman Barbara LIfton wrote a second letter to the NYSDEC Commissioner pushing against Cargill, Inc.'s salt mining under Cayuga Lake. Sarah Mearhoff


With Cargill, Inc.’s current mining permit expiring Wednesday, New York Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D-District 125) and Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-District 4) wrote a second letter to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation urging the department to deny the Lansing mine’s permit renewal.

The former Ithaca Gun factory site, to the right of Ithaca Falls. The concrete platform on the island feature and the raceway are to the right of the falls and to the left of the chimney connected to the main site by a bridge as seen in May of 2014 prior to the work over the winter of 2014-15 to clean up the island feature.
(Photo: SIMON WHEELER / Staff Photo)

The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced Wednesday that no further action will take place at the Ithaca Falls Overlook, where soil tested positive for lead in 2015 and water tested positive for trichloroethylene (TCE) in 2013.