Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant, pictured in December 2025. Credit: Laura Robertson | Central Current

The Onondaga County Legislature on Monday greenlit a $550 million plan to upgrade Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Facility, which will require the county to borrow up to $515 million.

Legislators voted 12-5, along party lines, to approve the measure. 

To complete the project, the county will issue $515 million in bonds. Onondaga County Comptroller Marty Masterpole said the bond resolution appeared to be the most expensive in the county’s history. 

Legislature Democrats have pushed back against issuing such a high value of bonds without knowing more about how taking on such debt would impact the county’s sewer rates. A plan and report issued to legislators estimated that yearly rates would increase $239.62. 

Thirteen members of the public spoke against the proposed resolution during a public hearing held before the session. Some worried about the cost of the project and the potential impact to taxpayers. Others spoke about a lack of transparency around the costs. Others shared concerns about the potential environmental impacts of Micron’s industrial waste. 

Shannon Harty Pagano, the former Onondaga County Water Environment Protection Commissioner, said that she supported the Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant municipal expansion, but that the public record left “major questions” unanswered. 

Pagano highlighted her own concerns about uncertainties around how the project would impact sewer rates, a concern shared by the legislature’s Democratic minority. Her concerns stemmed from the unpredictability of how many future commercial and residential sewer users there will be and a lack of information about how much borrowing will cost the county. 

Pagano was also concerned residents will subsidize the cost of improvements made in part because corporations like Micron plan to move to the area. Pagano also said she worried the county “could limit its ability to fund other critical sewer repairs” by allocating about $550 million to one project.

She asked the legislature to delay approving the resolution until it receives a detailed cost breakdown and financial analysis. 

“We support investment in wastewater infrastructure, but approving $550 million without these details risks affordability, limits oversight, and could compromise our future infrastructure needs,” said Pagano. 

Justin Sayles, a spokesperson for Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, pushed back against Pagano’s contention that issuing bonds to complete the project could limit the county’s ability to fund other sewer repairs. 

The county will not issue all $515 million in bonds at once, instead issuing them in tranches, Sayles said. 

“The contention that committing $550 million to one project limits our ability is categorically false and the public should not be lead to believe otherwise,” Sayles said. 

After the public comments, the legislature took a short recess before beginning the legislative session.

During the session, 2nd District Legislator Kevin Meaker thanked residents for attending and speaking but called their comments “misinformed.” Meaker, whose district hosts the wastewater treatment plant, said that the expansion project was “not industrial. Period.” He added that updating the infrastructure would be necessary in order to build more housing in the area. 

A motion brought by Democrats to send the resolution back to the Environmental Protection Committee did not pass. 

Democrats, including Legislator Dan Romeo, argued that there wasn’t yet enough detail to vote in favor of the project but that they supported the expansion and would support it in 2026 as more information came in. 

Republicans argued that these were necessary improvements, and that there had been extensive preparation and expert input from committee meetings to an email directly from Chief Financial Officer Kristi Smiley to Romeo, who had written to her with his questions. 

Smiley’s email provided a broad breakdown of the project’s costs. The upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant are responsible for about 80% of the project’s cost, or $417.5 million. Romeo wanted Smiley to provide a more detailed breakdown. 

“If I’m not okay with $549 million, I’m also not okay with $417.5 million being the smallest number that we can get for a breakdown,” said Romeo.

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...