Seneca Army Depot

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The former Seneca Army Depot occupied 10,587 acres (43 km²) between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in Seneca County New York. It was used as a munitions disposal and munitions storage facility by the United States Army from 1941 until it was announced that it would be decommissioned in the 1990s. Since the Gulf War, the base has been phased out, and it has since been divided into several functions, and this redevelopment continues.

The Seneca Army Depot is located between Seneca Lake and Lake Cayuga of the Finger Lakes in New York, southeast of the City of Geneva. The base is in the towns of Varick and Romulus. Adjacent to the storage facility is the Seneca Army Airfield with a long runway, capable of handling large cargo aircraft.

The depot was a major employer in the region. It was linked to the outside world by railroad lines and highways (NY-96 and NY-96A), in addition to the airfield.

1 Demonstrations to close the facility
2 Current disposition of the depot land
3 The deer herd
4 Toxic contamination
5 External links

[edit] Demonstrations to close the facility

From July 4 through November 1983, the depot was the focus of antiwar and antinuclear activists, when the Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was established. Groups of demonstrators staged civil disobedience protests, climbing the fence surrounding the depot. During one protest in November 1983, Dr. Benjamin Spock climbed the fence and was arrested. Writer/activist Grace Paley, and feminist artist Helene Aylon were also among the demonstrators. On three occasions--July 4, August 1, and November 3, 1983, Aylon covered the fence surrounding the depot with women's pillowcases that in 1982 were filled with "rescued earth" from nuclear sites across the country during her "Earth Ambulance" voyage and sleep-out at the United Nations.

[edit] Current disposition of the depot land

For a time the depot housed a unit of Kid's Peace, but that has now been taken over by the Hillside Children's Center, a similar program for children which is based in Rochester. The former depot property also includes a maximum-security state prison, Five Points Correctional Facility. A new Seneca County Jail also is being constructed on a portion of the site, and the depot's former airfield is slated for use as a New York State Police training center. In 2005, the Sports Car Club of America began using the air field for autocross racing competitions. The Finger Lakes Region of the SCCA will use the site to host the North East Division Solo Championship in July of 2006.

Portions of the warehouses at the former base are leased to the Advantage Group, which runs a varied storage and shipping business. Much of the housing at the depot has been sold to private developers and is now available as part of the area's civilian housing stock.

Discussions continue regarding the use of the rest of the land, much of which is dotted with large, concrete munitions storage bunkers known as igloos. That area also is home to the world's largest herd of all-white deer.

[edit] The deer herd

The white deer, long the symbol for the depot, began appearing at the base after it was fenced in 1941. A handful of whitetail deer who carried a recessive gene for all-white coats were isolated within. (They are not albinos, as is frequently assumed.) The base initially allowed only brown coated deer to be killed, so the herd of white deer has now grown to more than 200 deer.