Salt Mines
Message from Linda Adams:
Per Bill Hecht the modern salt mines are fairly well defined in 3-D.
The mid and late 1800's there was a series of active brine mines. Many of these cavities & shafts are just not documented. He thought 5 had been formally plugged and NYS has this record, only surface location though. Bill said there are two major areas to be aware of Myers Point and around the Cornell Cooling Plant, the slope behind the plant and sections south of the plant.
Bill H. went on to say how IMPORTANT it is that seismic data be obtained by the State from developers. In addition to the brine cavity unknown he said you can not possibly have proper over site of operations without the seismic data. He has been urging NYS to insist on this but he feels DEC Mining is not going to cover this base. I suggested to him another party has the leverage to get the seismic info and that is Landowners. I shared that the Tioga Landowner Coalition was making seismic data sharing a walk-away-from-negotiations point if it is not forthcoming to Landowners. It is the law in Texas, has been for decades so most developers realize Landowner's here are not asking for anything unusual. He was intrigued to hear about this push back on the part of some NYS Landowners.
