CLAY, N.Y. — An advocacy group known as Jobs to Move America and a group of local residents have filed a lawsuit in New York State Court to try to block the construction of Micron Technology’s Facility in Clay, New York.
News of the lawsuit came on the day of Micron’s groundbreaking ceremony in Clay at the White Pines site.
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A news release from Jobs to Move America on Friday, January 16 said the lawsuit was “to address what residents and organizations say are serious, unresolved concerns about the potential environmental, health and community impacts of the company’s planned semiconductor manufacturing facility outside of Syracuse and ensure that there are robust economic benefits for the local community.”
The lawsuit which was filed against the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the Town of Clay Planning Board, the Commissioner of Planning and Development in Clay, the LLC which Micron is applying for permits for in New York, and Micron Technology.
It continues to claim that 1,200 comments made to the U.S. CHIPS Program Office and OCIDA, including a “lengthy” comment from Jobs to Move America, raised “a wide range of potential harms associated with the project, including impacts to public health, housing, the environment, and regional transportation systems.”
“This conclusion is unacceptable given that Micron is expected to receive an estimated $20 billion in combined federal, state and local subsidies. Public agencies overseeing the approval process should require the company to pursue stronger mitigation measures and less harmful alternatives,” said Khadeejah Ahmad, a lifelong resident of Central New York and organizer with JMA.
The lawsuit argues that these “impacts” were not properly “addressed and mitigated” in the environmental review process. It points to three main concerns that the advocacy group holds:Potential pollution of local air, water, and soil due to the intensive use and disposal of toxic forever chemicals; Harms resulting from the destruction of approximately 200 acres of wetlands, including increased flood risk to surrounding properties; The project’s enormous carbon footprint from on-site emissions and energy demand, and how that complies with greenhouse gas reduction goals enshrined in state law.
“Micron must be a good neighbor to those of us who have lived here for years. The agencies did not adequately make sure those of us who live near the Micron site will be protected,” said Bonita H. Siegel, President of Neighbors for a Better Micron. “The goal of the lawsuit is to make sure Micron moves forward in a way that keeps us and our environment safe. We want Micron to be a good neighbor for years to come.”
CNY Central did extensive coverage on the Environmental Review Process that Micron went through with the county’s Industrial Development Agency. Including attending multiple public hearings where similar concerns, to the lawsuit, were raised.
Neighbors and advocacy groups over the summer of 2025, expressed worries about the time allotted to review the extensive 719-page document, which included references, thousands of pages worth of appendixes and further reading.
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County Executive Ryan McMahon addressed community concerns at the time by taking a swipe at neighbors who had previously challenged projects in Onondaga County, calling them “the usual suspects,” before saying that some comments were “interesting and validating” to hear and would be addressed.
“We’re going to take the comments, we’re going to review them, we’re going to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Did someone think of something we did not? It took us a while, so I don’t think that is going to be the case. Then we are going to respond to those, which gives us the final Environmental Impact Statement,” he said at the time.
The draft environmental impact statement for Micron passed through the local level, and the NYSDEC began issuing permits for Micron’s construction in December of 2025. Which led up to the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday. The first phase of constructing what is being called “the largest project in New York State history” is removing hundreds of trees from the Clay site.
You can read the details of the lawsuit below: