04/08/2026
Sign the petition
They Killed the Cape Fear River. The St. Lawrence Is Next
Bassmaster ranked the St. Lawrence River the #1 smallmouth bass fishery in the country. The world-record catch-and-release muskie — 57 inches, estimated at over 77 pounds — came out of the St. Lawrence near Gananoque in 2009. New York's all-time muskie record, 69 lbs 15 oz, was caught near Clayton in 1957 and still stands. Walleye. Pike. Perch. Salmon. There is no fishery like it on earth.
Now look at what's upstream.
In North Carolina, PFAS from a single industrial discharge turned the Cape Fear River into a no-eat zone. Largemouth bass: do not eat. Flathead catfish: do not eat. Striped bass: do not eat. PFAS was found in every species tested. Families who fished that river for generations were told to stop.
The discharge pathway for Micron's Clay semiconductor plant runs directly to the St. Lawrence:
**Micron → Oak Orchard → Oneida River → Oswego River → Lake Ontario → St. Lawrence River**
There are zero enforceable PFAS limits in the current permit. The industrial treatment plant hasn't been designed yet. The design-build contract hasn't been awarded yet. The window to fix this is right now — before the plant is built, not after the fish advisories are issued.
The St. Lawrence doesn't get a second chance.
🔗 Sign the petition at foreverchemicalsny.com
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**WEBSITE / CAMPAIGN UPDATE VERSION:**
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**They Killed the Cape Fear River. The St. Lawrence Is Next.**
The St. Lawrence River Thousand Islands region has been ranked by Bassmaster as the #1 smallmouth bass fishery in the country. The current catch-and-release world record muskie — 57 inches, estimated at more than 77 pounds — was taken on the St. Lawrence near Gananoque, Ontario in 2009. New York's all-time state record muskie, 69 pounds 15 ounces, was caught near Clayton in 1957 and still stands. Walleye. Northern pike. Yellow perch. Salmon. Smallmouth that will straighten a hook. There is no freshwater fishery on the continent that compares.
Look at what PFAS has already done downstream of a single industrial discharge point.
In North Carolina, the Chemours plant at Fayetteville Works discharged PFAS into the Cape Fear River for decades. Health officials issued a fish consumption advisory for the middle and lower Cape Fear River based on PFOS contamination. PFAS were found in all species tested. For largemouth bass, flathead catfish, striped bass, and bluegill — the advisory is categorical: do not eat. For other species, the limit is one meal per year. Families who fished that river for generations were told to stop. The advisory covers 200 miles of river. It is not temporary.
The discharge pathway for Micron's Clay, New York semiconductor plant runs directly to the St. Lawrence:
**Micron Technology (Clay, NY) → Oak Orchard WWTP → Oneida River → Oswego River → Lake Ontario → St. Lawrence River**
The Oak Orchard plant's current draft SPDES permit contains zero enforceable PFAS discharge limits. The industrial treatment plant has not been designed. The design-build contract has not been awarded. Micron's own engineers told county planners in November 2025 that PFAS limits were "not identified as a critical path issue."
The anglers who fish the Thousand Islands, Chippewa Bay, Cape Vincent, Clayton, and Alexandria Bay — and the guides, charter captains, outfitters, and communities whose livelihoods depend on that fishery — are the people holding the bag if this goes wrong. The Cape Fear took decades to reach "do not eat." It happened one unregulated discharge at a time.
The window to protect the St. Lawrence is right now — before the plant is designed, before the contract is awarded, before the first gallon of semiconductor wastewater enters the Oneida River. Sign the petition at foreverchemicalsny.com and share this with every angler you know.
