Request for TOP Assay Requirement at Oak Orchard ITT

Dear Director Lamb-LaFay,

I write regarding the draft SPDES permit modification for the Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant (DEC Application 7-3124-00018), specifically the proposed monitoring requirement of EPA Method 1633/1633A for PFAS in effluent from the proposed Industrial Treatment Train that will receive wastewater from Micron Technology’s semiconductor fabrication facility in Clay.

I am a fuel systems engineer with 40 years of experience and the founder of ForeverChemicals CNY, a public interest campaign focused on PFAS discharge risks from this facility. I write to request that DEC require the Total Oxidizable Precursor (TOP) Assay in addition to — not in replacement of — EPA Method 1633A for monitoring at the Oak Orchard ITT. The technical basis for this request is straightforward.

EPA Method 1633A targets approximately 40 known PFAS compounds. It was designed and validated for general wastewater matrices, primarily municipal influent containing PFAS from consumer products. Semiconductor fabrication wastewater is categorically different.

Cornell University researchers (Jacob et al., Environmental Science & Technology, 2021) identified 133 distinct PFAS compounds in semiconductor fabrication wastewater using non-targeted analysis — more than three times the number detectable by Method 1633A. The study found that targeted methods like 1633A capture only a fraction of total organofluorine present, a finding the authors termed “dark PFAS.” The TOP Assay addresses this gap by oxidizing PFAS precursors into measurable terminal compounds, revealing the full PFAS burden that targeted methods miss.

The permit documents do not address the TOP Assay at any point. Micron’s worst-case organic wastewater constituent list, submitted as part of the permit application and marked CONFIDENTIAL under FOIL POL 87(2)(c)&(d), contains zero PFAS compounds — a disclosure gap that the TOP Assay is specifically designed to address.

I respectfully request that DEC:

1. Require the TOP Assay in addition to Method 1633A as a condition of the Oak Orchard ITT SPDES permit, applied to both ITT influent (Micron discharge) and ITT effluent (Outfall 01B to Oneida River).
2. Require that TOP Assay results be reported publicly and not exempted from FOIL under trade secret provisions, as they represent discharge characterization to a public waterway.
3. Specify that Method 1633A — not the earlier and less sensitive Method 1633 — is the minimum acceptable standard, and that both methods be applied in parallel during the initial monitoring period to establish a full PFAS baseline.

The Oneida River discharges to the Oswego River, which discharges to Lake Ontario at Oswego — approximately 1.5 miles from the shared OCWA/City of Oswego drinking water intake that supplies over 500,000 Central New Yorkers. The monitoring framework established in this permit will define what we know and do not know about PFAS entering that watershed for the life of this facility.

I am available to provide additional technical documentation or to meet with Division of Water staff at your convenience. I can be reached at info@foreverchemicalsny.com or through our public campaign at foreverchemicalsny.com.

Respectfully submitted,