A national advocacy group and some Central New York residents filed an 11th-hour lawsuit today seeking to block Micron Technology’s development of chip fabs in the town of Clay, arguing that the environmental review of the massive project was inadequate.

The lawsuit was filed the same day that state and federal officials joined Micron leaders for a long-awaited ground-breaking at the site.

The litigation was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany by Jobs to Move America, a national nonprofit, and Neighbors for a Better Micron, an informal group represented by Clay resident Bonita Siegel.

The lawsuit claims that the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency failed to adequately consider the environmental impacts of the massive project before approving it in November.

Micron says it plans to build four chipmaking factories in Clay by 2041 to churn out billions of tiny computer chips used in cars, cell phones, data centers and artificial intelligence.

The company’s investment is estimated at $100 billion. The plants are expected to create 9,000 direct jobs and about 40,000 spinoff jobs.

Jobs to Move America has worked with local labor advocates in an effort to negotiate firm commitments from Micron to hire local workers. One of the claims in the lawsuit is that Micron has not made enforceable commitments to hire local workers or to provide good working conditions.

The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency voted unanimously in November to give final approval for the project, after reviewing the project’s environmental impact statement.

OCIDA acknowledged that Micron’s huge project will have irreversible impacts on the environment. But the agency said the company’s plan “is the one that avoids or minimizes adverse environmental impacts to the maximum extent practicable.”

Among the specific objections raised in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs said OCIDA did not adequately address Micron’s expected emissions of PFAS and other so-called forever chemicals, its greenhouse gas emissions and its destruction of 200 acres of wetlands on the Clay site.

The lawsuit said the environmental review was “unnecessarily rushed,” echoing the complaint of many critics. OCIDA accepted comments on the environmental assessment for 45 days, the minimum.

The lawsuit asks the court to nullify OCIDA’s acceptance of the environmental impact statement and reopen the review. If the court agrees, that would also annul the town of Clay’s approval of a building permit and any environmental permits granted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to OCIDA, the lawsuit names Micron, the DEC, the Clay planning board, and Clay planning Commissioner Brian Bender as defendants.

“Micron must be a good neighbor to those of us who have lived here for years,” Siegel, president of the neighbors group, said in a prepared statement. “The agencies did not adequately make sure those of us who live near the Micron site will be protected.”

The lawsuit was filed just hours after a ground-breaking to celebrate the start of construction.

Shortly before noon, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra joined with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and County Executive Ryan McMahon for the ceremonial dirt-tossing with silver shovels.

Site preparation at the 1,400-acre Micron site in Clay is expected to start within days. The first task for Micron’s initial contractor, Gilbane Co., is to start clearing 445 acres of forest. Gilbane will have to hurry: All tree-cutting must halt between March 31 and Nov. 1 because two species of endangered bats use the site to raise their young during the warmer months.

This year, Micron will need to haul in about 2 million yards of gravel-like fill to level and stabilize the site, which contains about 200 acres of wetlands. That will be done mostly by truck, with more than 500 trucks going in and out of the site every day on two-lane roads.

Micron said between 2,000 and 4,000 construction workers are expected to be on the site through 2030, according to the final environmental report.

Micron’s project underwent a two-year, 20,000-page environmental review that was wrapped up in November. Since then, Micron has obtained the wide variety of necessary construction approvals from the federal, state and local governments.

The groundbreaking on Friday came more than three years after Micron announced it had chosen Central New York for its biggest expansion ever in the United States. Nearly all of the company’s chips are made in Asia.

Micron says it will spend more than $51 billion to build two fabrication plants, or fabs, by 2033. Micron could receive $20 billion in taxpayer subsidies from federal, state and local governments for the first two fabs.

The company says it could spend another $50 billion to build a third and fourth fab by 2041, although there is no public money allotted for those.

Representatives from Micron and Onondaga County could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

Staff writer Tim Knauss can be reached at: email|Twitter| 315-470-3023.