County will start replacing pipe that has spewed 120 million gallons of sewage into Onondaga Lake

Syracuse, N.Y. — Onondaga County, under an order from the state, plans to replace a sewer line that has leaked more than 120 million gallons of raw sewage into Onondaga Lake in the past 11 years.
The head of the county’s wastewater system told legislators today that the first phase of the replacement will start by next summer and be completed in 2026. That phase will cost about $25 million, said Shannon Harty, commissioner of the county’s Water Environment Protection Department.
Harty said she didn’t know when phase 2 would begin or how much it might cost. The county has received a $10 million grant from the state for the project.
The line, called the Ley Creek force main, is about 50 years old and runs for 2.25 miles. A force main is a central collecting line that conveys sewage under pressure.
The age of the pipe and the high pressure within it “have caused likely and predictable force main ruptures on several occasions,” the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in its recent order to the county.
The county has pledged to replace the entire 2.25-mile line since at least 2018.
The county has now been cited twice in five years by the DEC for allowing sewage to leak from the 42-inch section of pipe that runs over the mouth of Onondaga Creek. The DEC has fined the county nearly $100,000 for the latest leak, which occurred in June and July, but suspended nearly half of that fine if the county abides by the order to replace the line.
The 2.25-mile line runs from the Ley Creek pump station on 7th North Street to the sewage treatment plant on Hiawatha Boulevard. Harty said the replacement is complicated because the force main runs along the tracks, under Interstate 81, and through the Destiny USA property before reaching the treatment plant.
The county plans to slide a new pipe inside the old one for about half of the length, Harty said. The remainder must be dug up and replaced, she said.
The project also includes lining and replacing another line that runs from Liverpool.
The section of the Ley Creek line that runs over the creek, alongside the CSX tracks, has ruptured five times since 2013. The leaks have dumped a combined 126 million gallons of raw sewage into the creek, which runs into the lake.