Community Vision for Strong Environmental, Resident, & Worker Protections: Micron Environmental Review

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We, the local CNY environmental, workforce, community, and public health and safety organizations, call on the US Department of Commerce and the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency to impose the following conditions on Micron Technology to maximize equitable quality-of-life benefits to communities impacted by Micron’s development in Central New York (CNY) and minimize the health, safety, socioeconomic, and environmental harms of Micron’s state and federally subsidized project.

Given the scale of the project and breadth and depth of potential impacts, we also strongly urge the US Department of Commerce and the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency to extend the comment period from 45 days to 120 days from the time of release and organize public hearings in multiple locations on different days beyond the the hearings scheduled on July 24. This will allow the public the time to review and respond to the 20,000-page DEIS.

1. Public Health and Safety, Environmental Health, and Resource Justice

Protect communities’ health & safety from toxic chemicals used to make microchips- Micron must not pollute our air, soil, fish & wildlife, and drinking water with any of the hundreds of chemicals used in their production process, including toxic ones such as PFAS (“forever chemicals”). Micron must commit to maintaining clean water, soil, and air and performing best practices to handle toxic chemicals and waste including minimizing its use of toxic chemicals.

Limit immediate and long-term environmental harms and care for impacted land, water, and wildlife - Micron must ensure that their mitigation plan adequately replaces the valuable wetlands habitat, watershed, and habitat for multiple endangered species that the project will destroy, and minimizes negative impacts to native species and ecological communities.

Commit to affordability and abundance of energy & clean water for communities - Micron must ensure that their massive energy and water use does not affect the affordability and abundance of energy and clean water in Central New York or elsewhere. The costs of infrastructure upgrades and higher energy demand to benefit Micron is not the responsibility of ratepayers.

Generate renewable energy and minimize contributions to the global climate emergency - To meet Micron’s 100% renewable energy commitment and the NY State requirement to significantly mitigate the factories’ greenhouse gas emissions, the company must create a comprehensive plan to generate or purchase new renewable energy using wind, solar, and grid and storage infrastructure - without relying on the purchase of renewable energy credits.

2. Jobs Access, Workforce Development, and Equitable & Safe Workplace

Commit to a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplace and a family-sustaining compensation package - Micron must commit to measures such as pay equity and transparency, fair schedules, child care and other supportive services, inclusion and anti-bias training, and protections against discrimination and harassment in order to ensure accessibility for and retention of women, people of color and other marginalized populations. Micron must also commit to ongoing training and professional growth of employees to ensure equitable promotion and advancement in a highly technical work environment.

Guarantee equity in hiring practices and workforce development - Micron must guarantee that a meaningful percentage of new hires come from marginalized local communities, particularly within the City of Syracuse, so that those who need good jobs the most have access to them. Micron must create a workforce development process focused on census tracts with the highest concentration of poverty in the CNY region. Micron must also commit to workforce development and hiring policies and programs free of access barriers such as GED requirements, English language proficiency requirements, and discrimination against workers impacted by the criminal legal system.

Ensure safe working conditions for workers - A good job is a safe job. Micron must commit to keep workers, their families, and community members safe from toxic chemicals by implementing state-of-the-art health and safety protocols to protect workers and their families, especially from exposure to large quantities of toxic chemicals used during production.

3. Housing and Transportation Justice and Equity

Invest in public transportation infrastructure to ensure Micron’s facility is accessible to all CNY residents - Micron has a responsibility to the people of CNY and its own workers to invest in transportation services and infrastructure that will support safe, reliable, and low-emissions transportation such as electric buses and trains to and from their proposed factories–a location which is not currently accessible by public transportation–as well as to other areas in the region which are inaccessible to impoverished populations. No matter what other commitments Micron might make to hiring workers from local disadvantaged communities, these jobs and the local socioeconomic benefits projected by Micron’s development will not be accessible to transit-dependent people if convenient, reliable, affordable, and safe transportation is not available.

Invest in affordable, safe, and secure housing for existing and new residents - Micron will have a significant impact on housing needs as the number of employees grows. Therefore, a cooperative effort between Micron and state and county government agencies is needed to expand the availability of mixed income affordable, climate friendly, and safe housing. This includes the protection of existing affordable housing, expanding code compliance to protect tenants, and ensure appropriate capital maintenance upgrades. Affordable housing must include state of the art climate friendly designs which rely on renewable energy, and allow for affordable, low-cost energy. Without strong commitments from Micron to protect and expand safe and affordable housing in CNY, and particularly within the city of Syracuse, the project will only exacerbate the problems in an already inequitable housing market.