Central New York · Onondaga County

CNY Infrastructure | salt to silicon

A public-interest brief on the proposed Lysander hyperscale data center and the Micron semiconductor campus — tracking power, water, and grid impacts on the same regional infrastructure.

Last updated
May 04, 2026 · 14:00 ET
Refresh cadence: 06:00 · 14:00 · 22:00 ET
Next refresh in: --:--

A 300-megawatt hyperscale data center has been proposed on a 124-acre industrial parcel in the Town of Lysander — with no public application yet filed.

Ranalli Super DC, LLC applied to NYISO in May 2025 to interconnect to the grid at Hencle Boulevard and Oswego Road in Baldwinsville. The land is listed at $60 million as a "300 MW Data Center Site." The actual end user has not been disclosed. Over 1,600 residents have signed a petition requesting a town moratorium. The Lysander Town Board is drafting one.

Status: EARLY PLANNING · Public application: NOT FILED · Local moratorium: BEING DRAFTED · State moratorium bill (S9144): IN COMMITTEE

Four semiconductor fabs on 1,377 acres at White Pine Commerce Park in Clay — a $100 billion, 20-year buildout requiring unprecedented water and power.

Micron's New York facility will require up to 48 million gallons of water per day at full buildout — more than the entire City of Syracuse uses. National Grid is constructing a two-mile, 345-kV underground transmission line to feed the campus. Wastewater discharge: 8–20 million gallons/day to the Oak Orchard IWWTP system.

Status: UNDER CONSTRUCTION · PSC transmission approval: OCT 2025 · SEQR review: ACTIVE · Target: LEED GOLD, 100% CARBON-FREE

Onondaga County is now the staging ground for two of New York's largest infrastructure asks — on the same regional grid, the same watershed, the same National Grid territory.

Micron's semiconductor campus in Clay and the proposed Ranalli hyperscale data center in Lysander are ~12 miles apart. Combined, they represent roughly 1.5 to 2 GW of new electrical demand on Zone C of the NYISO grid and tens of millions of gallons per day of water and wastewater throughput. Neither has yet completed a cumulative impact review.

Combined power demand: ~1.5–2 GW · Combined water draw: ~50M gal/day · Combined wastewater: ~25M gal/day · Cumulative SEQR review: NOT CONDUCTED

Why this view matters: Each project has been reviewed in isolation, but they will draw from the same National Grid distribution network, the same Lake Ontario / Oswego watershed, and may compete for the same capital construction labor pool. Cumulative impact analysis — the standard for SEQR Type I actions involving multiple connected actions — has not been performed for the pair.
01

By the Numbers

300MW
Grid interconnection request
Comparable to demand of 200,000 households
3.4M gal/day
Estimated water draw
If industry-avg evap cooling (1.8 L/kWh WUE)
50–98dB(A)
Typical hyperscale noise
Largest impact within 400 ft of facility
30–50
Permanent jobs (industry typical)
Highly skilled but few in number
48M gal/day
Water demand at full buildout
Vs. 40M gal/day for City of Syracuse
$100B
Capital investment over 20 yr
Largest single private investment in NY history
8–10M sf
Building space to heat/cool
Across four fabrication buildings
9,000
Permanent jobs at full operation
Plus 50,000+ supplier/induced jobs (claimed)
1.5–2GW
Combined regional power demand
~5% of total NYISO peak load
~50M gal/day
Combined freshwater draw
More than entire City of Syracuse uses
12K MW
NYISO interconnection queue (Jan 2026)
Up from 6,800 MW in Sept 2025
~1,500
Combined acreage rezoned
Industrial zoning conversion
02

Forever Chemicals — Drinking Water Risk

On April 10, 2026, NYSDEC issued the final SPDES discharge permit (NY0030317) for the Oak Orchard treatment system that will receive Micron's industrial wastewater. Of approximately 40 PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl “forever chemicals” — only two appear in the permit with a numeric value, and those two values are action levels (10 ng/L), not enforceable discharge limits. The treated effluent flows through the Oneida and Oswego Rivers into Lake Ontario, roughly one mile upstream of the OCWA drinking water intake that serves about half a million Central New York residents. Oak Orchard already exceeds the PFOS action level today, before any new industrial flow is added.

2 of 40
PFAS compounds with a numeric value
And those 2 are 10 ng/L action levels — not enforceable discharge limits
500K
Drinking water customers downstream
Lake Ontario intake, ~1 mile from discharge confluence
EXCEEDS
Existing Oak Orchard PFOS status
Before Micron sends a drop of wastewater
3M+
Downstream St. Lawrence basin
Quebec / Ontario residents on the same continuous waterway

The discharge pathway

Industrial wastewater → municipal treatment → rivers → lake → drinking water tap
MICRON FAB CLAY, NY SOURCE PIPE OAK ORCHARD WWTP PERMIT NY0030317 PFOS > ACTION LEVEL Oneida River Oswego River Lake Ontario OCWA INTAKE ~1 mi from confluence 500K PEOPLE · DRINKING WATER to St. Lawrence 3M+ DOWNSTREAM PFAS PATHWAY — SOURCE TO TAP CNY INFRASTRUCTURE WATCH

Discharge pathway: Micron → Oak Orchard WWTP → Oneida River → Oswego River → Lake Ontario → OCWA drinking water intake. Sources: NYSDEC SPDES Permit NY0030317 (Apr 2026); Oak Orchard WWTP Final SPDES Permit (Apr 2026); NYSDEC Public Notice, Town of Clay / Micron (Jul 2025); Onondaga County NOIA Response — Brown & Caldwell Conceptual Design Report (Nov 2025); Micron Joint Application for Permit (Oneida River); PFAS Watch NY.

PFOS in context — concentration scale (ng/L)

EPA enforceable drinking-water limit vs. action-level threshold vs. projected industrial discharge
4 ng/L EPA enforceable drinking-water MCL (PFOS) EPA LIMIT 10 ng/L — action level (non-enforceable) Oak Orchard WWTP already exceeds this for PFOS today PERMIT THRESHOLD ~1,136,000 ng/L — ~284,000× the EPA drinking-water limit PROJECTED DISCHARGE* * Advocacy-group calculation from FOIL'd Brown & Caldwell Conceptual Design Report (Nov 2025) — not yet independently verified. PFOS — THREE NUMBERS NOTE: bars shown at compressed scale; actual ratio between action level and projected discharge is roughly 113,600×.

EPA Final PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, 40 CFR 141 (PFOS MCL = 4 ng/L); NYSDEC SPDES Permit NY0030317 Fact Sheet (action level = 10 ng/L); projected discharge figure from PFAS Watch NY calculation based on Onondaga County Brown & Caldwell Conceptual Design Report (Nov 2025). The 1,136,000 ng/L figure is an advocacy-group projection from FOIL'd engineering documents and has not been independently verified by this brief.

Primary documents

The receipts — permit text, public notices, and engineering reports cited above
03

Infrastructure Load

Power demand in context

Megawatts — comparison of major Central NY power loads
Syracuse residential ~80 MW Lysander DC (proposed) 300 MW TerraWulf Lake Mariner 360 MW (NY peer) Micron (Phase 1) ~700 MW est. Lysander + Micron P1 ~1,000 MW combined Micron (full 20yr buildout) ~1,700 MW est. Robert Moses Niagara (capacity) 2,400 MW 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 MW

Sources: NYISO interconnection filings; Micron PSC filings (S5); Black Ridge Research data center database (S4); NYPA Robert Moses generation profile. Phase 1 Micron load is an analyst estimate; actual load profile not publicly disclosed.

Geographic context: Onondaga County

Approximate locations — site coordinates from public listings and SEQR filings
N Lake Ontario Oneida Lake Seneca River I-81 TOWN OF LYSANDER TOWN OF CLAY Baldwinsville Syracuse RANALLI SUPER DC (PROPOSED) 2200 Hencle Blvd, Baldwinsville 300 MW · 124 acres · $60M MICRON CAMPUS (UNDER CONSTRUCTION) 5171 Route 31, Town of Clay 4 fabs · 1,377 acres · $100B ~12 mi as-the-crow-flies G CLAY SUBSTATION Oak Orchard IWWTP LEGEND Proposed data center Active fab site Substation Wastewater plant

Geographic representation is schematic, not survey-grade. Site addresses confirmed: 2200 Hencle Blvd, Baldwinsville (Town of Lysander), 13027 (S7); 5171 Route 31, Town of Clay (S6).

04

Timeline of Events

May 2025
LYSRanalli Super DC files NYISO interconnection request

Application submitted for 300 MW grid connection at Hencle Boulevard / Oswego Road parcel. NYISO is the independent operator of New York's electric grid.

Jun 2025
MICNYSDEC publishes Town of Clay project SEQR notice

State Environmental Quality Review process formally initiated for the four-fab campus and its connected actions (utilities, rail spur, childcare/healthcare facilities).

Oct 2025
MICPSC approves National Grid 345 kV transmission line

Public Service Commission adopts joint proposal for two-mile underground transmission line from Clay Substation to Micron campus.

Sep 2025
NYSNYISO interconnection queue: 6,800 MW of large load

State-level data point: large-load (incl. data center) interconnection requests in queue.

Jan 2026
NYSNYISO interconnection queue: 12,000 MW — nearly doubles

Large-load queue grows from 6,800 MW (Sep 2025) to 12,000 MW in four months. ~2,000 MW already modeled into baseline reliability forecasts.

Feb 2026
NYSSenator Krueger introduces S9144 — data center moratorium

Statewide moratorium of three years and ninety days on new data center permits. Mandates DEC Generic EIS, requires PSC report on rate impacts to residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

Apr 15, 2026
LYSPublic learns of Ranalli plans — "Citizens Against Lysander Data Center" forms

Pyramid Brokerage listing identifying the parcel as a "300 MW Data Center Site" surfaces. Petition begins circulating; reaches 1,500+ signatures within days.

Apr 16, 2026
LYSLysander Town Board discusses moratorium

Town Supervisor Kevin Rode confirms no formal application has been filed for a data center; existing site plan approval is for an auto-parts warehouse only. Board directs town attorney to draft a moratorium.

Apr 30, 2026
LYSTarget NYISO approval date for assignable interconnection

Per the Pyramid Brokerage listing, NYISO approval of the assignable 300 MW interconnection application is anticipated by April 30, 2026 — making the parcel materially more valuable to a hyperscale developer.

May 04, 2026
LYSMICNYSCurrent status

Lysander: no formal application filed; moratorium being drafted. Micron: under construction, transmission approved. State: S9144 in Environmental Conservation Committee.

05

Who's Who

Entity Role Stance Notes
Ranalli Super DC, LLC Developer / land owner PROPONENT Led by James Ranalli, Onondaga County developer and owner of United Auto Supply. Seeking buyer for the parcel.
Citizens Against Lysander Data Center Resident coalition OPPOSED Petition with 1,600+ signatures; cites noise, water, property value, wildlife concerns.
Lysander Town Board Local zoning / permitting DRAFTING MORATORIUM Supervisor Kevin Rode shares community concerns; town attorney directed to draft moratorium.
Pyramid Brokerage / Cushman & Wakefield Listing broker AGENT Listing agents James A. Laurenzo and Christopher Savage. Marketed as "300 MW Data Center Site."
NYISO Grid operator OPERATIONAL Independent, non-partisan operator of NY electric grid. Manages large-load interconnection queue.
National Grid Distribution utility UTILITY Would deliver power. Ratepayers may absorb infrastructure upgrade costs unless data center is placed in separate rate class.
Micron Technology, Inc. Semiconductor manufacturer DEVELOPER $100B investment via Micron NY Semiconductor Manufacturing LLC subsidiary. Targets LEED Gold, 100% carbon-free electricity.
NYS Public Service Commission Utility regulator APPROVED TRANSMISSION Approved 345 kV underground transmission line and Phase 1 construction plan in Oct 2025.
NYSDEC Lead environmental review agency SEQR LEAD Conducting State Environmental Quality Review. Notice published June 2025.
Governor Hochul / Empire State Development State sponsor / Green CHIPS PROPONENT Green CHIPS incentive program; coordinated infrastructure approvals.
Senator Liz Krueger Sponsor of S9144 SEEKS MORATORIUM Bill: 3-year-90-day statewide moratorium on new DC permits; PSC report on rate impacts.
06

Open Questions & Concerns

Environmental

Water, noise, air, wildlife

  • Cooling type not specified — evaporative open-loop can use 530K–5M gal/day; closed-loop ~22K gal/day
  • Source of cooling water not identified — municipal, aquifer, or surface withdrawal
  • Hyperscale noise: 50–98 dB(A) typical; biggest impact within 400 ft
  • Diesel backup generators require periodic testing — recurring air quality impact
  • Wildlife habitat — deer, turkey, regional fauna noted by abutters
  • Carbon footprint — data centers average 48% higher than US grid

Economic

Who pays, who benefits

  • National Grid infrastructure upgrades may be passed to all ratepayers unless DC is placed in a separate rate class
  • NY State sales tax exemption already exists for "Internet data centers" (ST-121.5) — qualifies even without local PILOT
  • Permanent jobs typically 30–50 for hyperscale facilities
  • Property value impact within 1–2 mile radius is documented in peer markets
  • School district impact — PILOT/abatement structures often shift property tax burden
  • Construction jobs: hundreds, but typically ~1 year duration per phase

Procedural

Disclosure & due process

  • End-user / actual operator not disclosed — LLC name obscures the corporate tenant
  • Existing site plan approval is for warehouse use only — data center requires new application
  • Cumulative SEQR review with Micron has not been performed
  • Tax abatement subsidies — community should demand 90-day advance disclosure of full project terms
  • Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) not yet on the table
  • Town moratorium is procedural pause, not denial

Cyber / National Security

Critical infrastructure exposure

  • Hyperscale DCs are CISA-designated critical infrastructure — tenant identity matters
  • If foreign-owned operator: CFIUS review may apply
  • If used for AI training/inference, may host CUI or controlled data — CMMC implications for surrounding contractors
  • Local emergency services impact — physical and cyber incident response capability
  • Backup power and water dependencies could become attack surface
  • Site siting near Micron creates a high-value regional target concentration

Environmental (Micron)

Watershed, discharge, scale

  • 48M gal/day water demand at full buildout (vs 5M gal/day estimated in 2021)
  • 54-inch transmission line from Oswego required — ~$100M cost, taxpayer share unclear
  • Wastewater discharge 8–20M gal/day to IWWTP system
  • Oak Orchard IWWTP environmental review gaps documented separately
  • 20-year buildout horizon — phased impact assessment
  • Carbon-free electricity target subject to grid mix realities

Economic (Micron)

Investment scale, risk concentration

  • $100B over 20 years — largest single private investment in NY history
  • ~9,000 permanent jobs claimed; supplier ecosystem multiplier estimated 50K+
  • Federal CHIPS Act funding component
  • Green CHIPS state incentive package
  • Regional housing market pressure already documented
  • Workforce pipeline — aligned with Syracuse University and SUNY system

Cumulative Procedural Gap

SEQR connected actions

  • SEQR Type I actions involving multiple connected projects on shared infrastructure ordinarily warrant cumulative impact analysis
  • Micron and Lysander DC will share NYISO Zone C, National Grid, and Oneida watershed
  • Construction labor pool overlap creates regional cost inflation risk
  • Combined transformer and substation requirements not jointly modeled
  • State PSC has not produced a combined-load reliability assessment for the pair
  • Cumulative noise and air-quality impact analysis at the regional level: not on record

Combined Critical Infrastructure

Regional target concentration

  • Concentrating semiconductor manufacturing + hyperscale DC in one county increases regional kinetic and cyber attack surface
  • Shared substation = single point of failure for both critical facilities
  • DoD / IC interest likely — both projects touch national security supply chains
  • Local first responder capacity must scale with both
  • OT/ICS environments at fab + hyperscale OT-adjacent infrastructure require coordinated threat intelligence
  • Regional resilience planning (water, power, telecom) needs joint review

Questions for the Town Meeting

Curated questions a concerned resident, board member, or reporter should ask of the developer, the Town Board, NYISO, National Grid, and the State. Print this page and bring it.

Ask the developer
Who is the actual end user of this facility?
An LLC name is not a tenant. Communities are entitled to the legal name of the operator before granting any approvals.
Ask the developer
What cooling technology will be used — open-loop evaporative, closed-loop, or air?
The difference is between ~22,000 gallons/day and 5,000,000 gallons/day. This belongs in the application, not in negotiation.
Ask National Grid
What infrastructure upgrades are required, and who pays?
Per S9144 logic, data centers should be in their own rate class so residential ratepayers are not subsidizing private infrastructure.
Ask the Town Board
What is the noise limit at the property line, and how is it monitored?
Continuous, post-construction noise monitoring should be a condition, not a promise.
Ask the Town Board
Will tax abatement / PILOT terms be disclosed 90 days in advance, in full?
Per Good Jobs First standards, hyperscale projects warrant complete advance disclosure including end-user identity, water, power, noise, and tax terms.
Ask NYSDEC
Will the Lysander proposal be reviewed cumulatively with Micron?
Both are SEQR-significant actions on shared infrastructure. Connected-action analysis is appropriate.
Ask Micron
Updated water and wastewater profile per phase?
2021 estimates were ~5M gal/day; 2024 figures are ~48M gal/day at full buildout. Trend warrants quarterly update.
Ask Onondaga County
Cost share for the 54" Oswego water transmission line?
~$100M project; taxpayer share has not been clearly itemized in public materials.
Ask the State
Status of S9144 (Krueger) and impact on pending NYISO applications?
A statewide moratorium with retroactive scope to in-flight applications would directly affect the April 30, 2026 NYISO approval target for the Lysander site.
Ask the State
Will critical infrastructure concentration trigger CISA / DHS regional review?
A semiconductor fab and hyperscale data center on the same grid zone is a national-security-relevant concentration. Coordinated resilience planning is appropriate.
07

The Regional Pattern

A 145-year reel of CNY's "transformational" infrastructure

salt → industry → retail → silicon

This isn't the first time CNY has been sold a transformational megaproject. Allied Chemical promised industrial prosperity and left a Superfund. Carrier promised long-term manufacturing employment and offshored to Asia. Carousel Center promised an aquarium, a hotel, three golf courses, and a domed park; what got built was a mall. Tesla's Buffalo factory promised to be the seed of a clean-energy supply chain; the surrounding land remains largely empty after a decade.  When the Hyperscaler race is "over" & technology naturally reduces it's footprint, CNY will be left holding the  forever-polluted  bag, thats useless.    

The current proposals ~ Micron in Clay, the Ranalli hyperscale in Lysander ~ come into a region that has heard this kind of pitch before. The question isn't whether to build. The question is whether the promised version is what gets built, who pays when it isn't, and what gets left behind for the next generation to clean up.

What follows is the receipt drawer.

1880onondaga lake
Solvay Process / Allied Chemical / Honeywell
Onondaga Lake western shore
water air cleanup cost
What was promised
  • Generational industrial employment
  • A foundation industry for Syracuse
  • Clean operation under "modern" environmental practice
What was delivered
  • 165,000 lbs of mercury dumped 1946–1970
  • Swimming banned 1940; fishing banned 1972
  • Federal Superfund designation 1994
  • ~7 million cubic yards contaminated sediment
  • Cleanup ongoing today — remediation issues continuing into 2026
Sources: EPA Superfund Site Profile · Onondaga Nation timeline · syracuse.com (2026)
1937dewitt · syracuse
Carrier Corporation
Thompson Road, DeWitt
jobs tax base
What was promised
  • Anchor manufacturer for the region
  • Long-term, stable industrial employment
  • Air-conditioning HQ as a CNY signature industry
What was delivered
  • Peak local employment of ~7,000 in the 1980s
  • Manufacturing offshored over the 1990s–2000s
  • HQ relocated out of Syracuse in 2004
  • Brownfield redevelopment ongoing on former campus
Sources: Carrier corporate history · Empire State Development records
1990oil city · syracuse
Carousel Center / Destiny USA
Onondaga Lake southeast shore
tax exemption land use
What was promised (2001 Destiny USA expansion)
  • 4.96 million sq ft retail/entertainment complex
  • 90,000 sq ft saltwater aquarium
  • 500,000 sq ft indoor sports complex
  • Glass-enclosed Winter Garden with Erie Canal replica
  • 15,000-seat amphitheater
  • 100-acre domed park
  • 20,000 hotel rooms · three golf courses · performing arts center (per original Pyramid Companies pitch deck)
What was delivered
  • 2.4 million sq ft mall (less than half the promise)
  • No aquarium · no hotel · no golf courses · no domed park
  • No amphitheater · no Winter Garden
  • Tax exemption preserved despite missed expansion deadlines
  • 2012: Mayor Miner announced expansion was "the final phase"
Sources: malls.fandom.com Destiny USA history · CNY Central · Shopping Mall Museum
1988town of clay
Great Northern Mall
Route 31, Clay (~3 mi from Micron site)
land use tax base
What was promised
  • Anchor regional shopping destination for northern suburbs
  • Long-term retail tax base for Town of Clay
  • Job center for the northern Onondaga County corridor
What was delivered
  • Lost anchor tenants progressively through 2000s–2010s
  • Substantial vacancy by mid-2010s
  • Multiple stalled redevelopment plans
  • Currently in piecemeal redevelopment loop
Sources: Onondaga County records · regional retail reporting
1954dewitt
Shoppingtown Mall
Erie Boulevard, DeWitt
land use municipal cost
What was promised
  • One of the first regional shopping centers in CNY
  • Decades-long retail anchor for eastern suburbs
  • Municipal tax base for DeWitt
What was delivered
  • Operated 1954–2020 (66 years)
  • Hollowed out in final decade
  • Closed 2020 amid COVID and tax delinquency
  • Municipal acquisition · partial demolition · ongoing redevelopment
Sources: Town of DeWitt records · Syracuse.com
2013buffalo · western ny
SolarCity / Tesla RiverBend
South Buffalo · "Buffalo Billion" project
$1B taxpayer jobs land use
What was promised
  • 1,400+ direct jobs · 5,000 statewide clean-energy jobs
  • $5 billion in economic activity
  • Mass-production of Tesla Solar Roof at scale
  • Spin-off supply chain employing thousands more
  • Anchor of regional clean-energy manufacturing sector
What was delivered
  • $950M+ public subsidy · $1/year lease to Tesla
  • Bid-rigging scandal sent SUNY Poly president to prison (2018)
  • Solar Roof never reached promised scale; production halted in 2022
  • Pivoted to EV chargers, then Dojo supercomputer (discontinued 2025)
  • Job target met only after 12+ contract amendments
  • Surrounding state-owned brownfield acreage remains undeveloped
Sources: Investigative Post · Reinvent Albany · Gothamist (2026) · Buffalo News

The current proposals enter this regional history.

Micron's $100 billion semiconductor campus may genuinely deliver what it promises. So might the Lysander hyperscale data center. Both could be the exception that breaks the pattern. That outcome should be the documented baseline expectation, not the optimistic case.

The throughline across every project on this page is not whether the developers were sincere. It is that the public-facing promise and the eventual delivered reality have, repeatedly, not matched — and that the gap was foreseeable, on the public record, in plain language, before construction started.

This site exists to keep that record in plain language while these decisions are still in front of us.

08

Source Library