Micron is close to obtaining the first permits needed to build chip plants in Clay

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Micron Technology is in the final stages of obtaining the first three permits it will need to build its planned chipmaking complex in Clay.

The permits would allow the company to destroy hundreds of acres of wetlands and threatened bird habitat by setting aside similar land elsewhere. Micron can’t start work until it gets these and other permits from state and federal regulators.

Micron is racing to garner those approvals so it can start cutting hundreds of acres of forest and trucking in millions of tons of fill in November. The project is already 18 months behind the original schedule proposed in 2023.

The wetlands and bird habitat permit applications are now open for public review, another sign that Micron is forging ahead with what would be the largest private investment in state history.

The company says it must ultimately obtain 34 major approvals from 12 government agencies, from the town of Clay to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Those approvals include air and water discharges, construction of access roads from state highways, withdrawal of water from Lake Ontario and zoning changes.

Not all of those approvals will be needed by November; some can likely be obtained later as the project progresses, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said. The first of four planned chip factories won’t start operations until early 2029, Micron said.

The New York Empire State Development agency meets weekly with officials at all levels of government to keep the permit applications on track, said Kevin Younis, a Syracuse native and deputy director of the agency.

“We track where it is, where it needs to be, who’s doing it, who’s not doing it,” Younis said. “We track all the local permits. We track all the federal permits.”

All of those approvals are separate from the draft environmental impact statement that details the potential effects of the project. A public hearing was held on that 20,000-page report July 24, and the public can comment in writing until Aug. 11.

The project can’t move forward until both the Onondaga County Industrial Development agency and the U.S. Department of Commerce finish the environmental report and give the project their blessing. That’s expected to come in October.

While that report is being wrapped up, Micron is pushing to get permit applications approved. In the applications now open for public comment, Micron is asking:

The state Department of Environmental Conservation for a permit to cut trees, pour concrete and otherwise destroy about 600 acres of habitat that is occasionally used by the northern harrier hawk, considered threatened in New York state, and the short-eared owl, listed as endangered.

The Army Corps and the state Department of Environmental Conservation for permission to fill in about 200 acres of wetlands on the site. Each agency would issue a separate permit. These applications were first filed in May 2023, and Micron has been going back and forth with regulators to answer questions and prepare a plan to mitigate the loss of the wetlands.

To obtain those permits, Micron has pledged to set aside more than 1,400 acres of wetlands and bird habitat to make up for what’s lost during construction. The wetlands would be created at six unconnected parcels in southern Oswego County. The bird habitat would be set aside at eight sites, ranging from Oswego to Tioga counties.

The wetlands and habitat sites would be overseen by the nonprofit The Wetland Trust.

Micron says it plans to build up to four fabrication plants, or fabs, in Clay that would annually produce more than 1 billion memory chips used in cell phones, artificial intelligence and other uses. The company could get taxpayer subsidies of up to $25 billion to build the first two fabs.

How to comment

Wetlands. DEC and the Army Corps are taking written comments on the wetlands permits. Comments can be sent to DEC at Comments.Micron2025@dec.ny.gov by Sept. 1. The Army Corps is taking written comments at CELRB-Micron.public.comments@usace.army.mil by Aug. 11. Be sure to include the project number of LRB-2000-02198.

The wetlands permit applications are available at Micron’s permits website. They are listed under the title JPA, which stands for joint permit application, and WQC, which stands for Water Quality Certification.

Paper copies of the applications can also be found at the Cicero, North Syracuse and Brewerton libraries.

Bird habitat. The bird habitat application is buried inside the joint permit application on the Micron site. You can find it as Appendix Q in the JPA Appendix Volume V.

It’s the same email address for comments on the habitat as it is for the wetlands: Comments.Micron2025@dec.ny.gov.

Public hearings. DEC will hold two virtual public hearings on the wetlands and permit applications, from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 12 and 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 13. Anyone who wants to watch or speak has to register online. Click on the dates to register for that session:

• Tuesday, Aug. 12
• Wednesday, Aug. 13

The Army Corps held a public hearing on the wetlands application on July 24, in conjuction with the hearing on Micron’s impact report.

Micron also needs permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to cut down trees because two species of endangered bats roost on the site in summer. The bats are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act and so fall under jurisdiction of the wildlife service.