By Caroline Grass
September 29, 2023
A view of Cayuga Lake from Allen H. Treman State Marine Park with the Cayuga Salt Mine in the distance. (Photo by Caroline Grass)
At least once every season, my crew team rows from our boathouse on the Cayuga Inlet to the Cayuga Salt Mine in Lansing, New York. I’m a coxswain on the team so I’m steering the boat, not rowing, but it’s long Saturday morning practice nonetheless as the rowers log thousands of meters round-trip. I had heard of the salt mine before first rowing to it, but passing by the complex along the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake put the massive operation into perspective.
Over 230 miners work 2,300 feet below the ground to harvest salt in the over 7 mile long mine. According to Cargill, who has owned the mine since 1970, the mine produces approximately 2 million tons of road salt every year which is shipped to over 1,500 locations in the state and region.
Location of the salt mine on Cayuga Lake. (Google Maps)
Last month, a report from The Deal, a financial website, indicated that Cargill is working to sell the Cayuga Salt Mine in addition to operations in Cleveland which would mean the company is essentially leaving the salt mining business altogether. The report estimates that the sale of these assets will generate $375 million in revenue.
Salt mining is dangerous for workers and the environment. Cargill closed their Avery Island salt mine in Louisiana and began intentionally flooding it in 2021 after a roof collapse at the mine killed two miners in 2020. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, too much salt in freshwater waterways can “exacerbate metal contamination in drinking water, increase nutrient and heavy metal contamination in streams and lakes, and can cause environmental stress to sensitive species.”
Activist groups like Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) are pushing for the closure of the mine instead of a sale. CLEAN argues that the risk of subsidence could “further salinize our invaluable freshwater lake for many decades if not centuries to come.” Subsidence which is when the ground sinks due to the ceilings of mined rooms underneath the ground sagging.
Stephanie Redmond, steering committee member of CLEAN, told the Ithaca Times, “We believe it is imperative to ensure that the Cayuga Salt Mine is appropriately decommissioned and that adequate measures are taken to safeguard our environment, in particular the mined area under Cayuga Lake."
Now we have to wait and see what's next for the Cayuga Salt Mine. Through reading articles about the news of Cargill's divestment plans, the timeline of a sale is still unclear to me but the potential negative environmental impacts of continued mining makes this a story to keep a close eye on.
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