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Superfund / NPL site · EPA Superfund SEMS through latest publishNPL Final

Onondaga Lake

This site is currently on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List and remains under federal cleanup oversight. Most-cited contaminant of concern: Arsenic.

Postal Address is unavailable for the Site, Syracuse, New York · ZIP 13209 · EPA ID NYD986913580

See Onondaga ContaminantsEquity contextHow we read Superfund data
CLEANUP TIMELINE

Listing-date and cleanup-phase enrichment from EPA's per-site SEMS profile is queued for a follow-up ingest pass. Until then, this section will populate from EPA's published timeline data.

Anomaly engine

Notable Signals

No notable signals at this Superfund site for the current ingest. Cleanup-phase and SEMS-action flags are deferred to a follow-up engineering pass.

Contaminants of concern · per EPA SEMS

What's In This Site

Each row pairs a contaminant with the medium it was found in (the exposure pathway). Hover any named contaminant for an agency-cited health-risk summary. Cited count = number of SEMS decision records (RODs and related) that name the pair.

ContaminantPathwayCited
ArsenicHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. EPA MCL 10 µg/L; chronic exposure causes skin, lung, bladder cancer and cardiovascular disease. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Soil9
Benzo[A]PyreneHealth riskPAH; IARC Group 1 carcinogen; the prototypical PAH used to benchmark PAH-mixture cancer risk. EPA MCL 0.2 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Soil8
Dibenzo(A,H)AnthraceneSoil8
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil8
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil8
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs)Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Soil8
Benzo[A]AnthraceneHealth riskPAH; IARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; common combustion byproduct and creosote constituent. (IARC)Soil7
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater6
Benzo(B)FluorantheneSoil6
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Soil6
Indeno(1,2,3-Cd)PyreneSoil6
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Soil6
Xylene (Mixed Isomers)Health riskEye, skin, and respiratory irritant; central-nervous-system effects from chronic exposure. (EPA)Soil6
ZincHealth riskGenerally low acute toxicity. Chronic high-dose exposure disrupts copper absorption and immune function. (ATSDR)Soil6
BenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen. Long-term inhalation causes leukemia and bone-marrow disorders. (IARC, EPA)Soil5
Benzo(K)FluorantheneSoil5
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Soil5
HexachlorobenzeneSoil5
NaphthaleneHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; causes hemolytic anemia, especially in infants. (IARC)Groundwater5
TolueneHealth riskCentral-nervous-system depressant. Chronic high exposure causes hearing loss and developmental effects. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil5
2-Methylphenol (O-Cresol)Soil4
Aroclor 1248Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Soil4
Aroclor 1254Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Soil4
Aroclor 1260Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Soil4
Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride)Health riskIARC Group 2A probable carcinogen; central-nervous-system depressant; banned for most consumer paint-stripper uses. (IARC, EPA)Soil4
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment4
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater4
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment4
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs)Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Sediment4
TolueneHealth riskCentral-nervous-system depressant. Chronic high exposure causes hearing loss and developmental effects. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater4

Showing the top 30 pairs by SEMS citation count. 208 additional (contaminant, pathway) pairs are recorded for this site.

Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

Groundwater Systems Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

The 1 system below draw on groundwater (or mixed sources) and serve communities whose centroid sits within 3 miles of this site. Distance is to the served-city centroid — SDWIS does not expose individual wellhead locations, so this is a proximity screen, not a wellhead-impact assessment.

Water systemServesDistancePopulation servedSourceStatus
Estate Townhouses PrivateLiverpool2.5 mi50GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED

Methodology: served-city centroid (TIGER 2020) is used as the PWS coordinate. Source-water classification from SDWIS primary_source_code; only groundwater and mixed-source systems are queried. Click any system above for its full SDWIS profile.

Equity context · ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics

Who Lives Near This Site

Within 1 mile of this site (3 Census block groups, population-weighted demographics): a population of 3,259. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
42.5%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
18.2%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
10.4%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
19.9%

Over age 64

Source: Census ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics, population-weighted across the 1-mile buffer around this site (from USEPA-clone/EJAM-open blockgroupstats). NPL site proximity contributes to the national EJ pattern; indicator-level percentile and disparity scores are surfaced on the county page and the state page.

Source. EPA Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS) · retrieved 2026-05-07. SEMS is a federal public-domain dataset under 17 USC §105.

What this is not. We report EPA's published Superfund record — site listing, status, and contaminants of concern as named in EPA's decision documents. We do not perform site visits, independent air or water sampling, or current-state health-risk assessment. NPL listing reflects EPA's Hazard Ranking Score at a point in time; it does not by itself describe present-day exposure.