Environmental Quality Award

Onondaga County, Onondaga Nation and two environmental groups to be honored by EPA
By Tim Knauss / The Post-Standard
April 19, 2010, 6:57PM

Syracuse, NY -- Officials from Onondaga County, the Onondaga Nation and two non-profit environmental groups will travel to Manhattan Friday to accept an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their work collaborating on a green solution to the sewer overflows that plague Onondaga Lake and its tributaries.

The regional office of EPA will give its Environmental Quality Award to County Executive Joanie Mahoney, the Onondaga Nation, Atlantic States Legal Foundation and the Partnership for Onondaga Creek.

They are being honored for working together on a new solution for overloaded sewers, using rain gardens, porous pavement and other green initiatives to absorb storm runoff. Underground storage tanks will be used in combination with those methods.

That plan, approved in November by a federal judge overseeing the county’s compliance with clean water rules, replaced a program of building controversial sewage treatment facilities in city neighborhoods.

EPA’s Region 2 office in New York makes the awards annually to individuals, groups or government officials for “significant contributions” to environmental quality. A full list of this year’s winners is expected to be released Friday.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/onondaga_county_onondaga_natio.html