PFAS and Micron: How will the $100B project deal with ‘forever chemicals’

By Emily Kenny and Natalie Mooney | Bay News 9 | August 4, 2025

Read the full article by Emily Kenny and Natalie Mooney (Bay News 9)

"As Micron Technology moves forward with its $100 billion semiconductor facility in Central New York, community members raised an alarm about per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, but experts contend the technology exists to handle it – for a price.

During a public hearing last week on the project’s environmental impact, Donald Hughes, an advocate for the Sierra Club, cautioned about the use of PFAS chemicals in the manufacturing of semiconductors.

“They've been using PFAS for at least a decade, I’d say probably more. It’s a complicated process where they bring in the wafers, and they use photolithography to etch patterns in the chips, and this is to create an intricate pattern of circuitry if you will. They use ultraviolet light to etch, and the PFAS is part of that process in various steps of it,” said Hughes, who has experience as an environmental engineer and chemist.

The biggest of his concerns would be in the event of a chemical spill involving the PFAS substances."