On October 4, 2022, Micron Technology announced that it will be building its newest chip manufacturing plant here in Central New York. The plant is projected to be built at the White Pines Commerce Park in Clay, NY. As part of this project, Micron intends to spend up to $100 billion in Onondaga County over the next 20 years and generate as many as 9,000 jobs. The plant is estimated to create another 40,000 jobs in the region related to the project, including in construction. Ron Klain, the White House Chief of Staff, called this project “one of the largest job-creating projects in U.S. history”.
Our region’s access to reliable and affordable water, provided in part by OCWA, has been cited as a key determining factor in Micron choosing to build this plant in Clay. Indeed, Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron’s President and CEO, stated at a press conference held at Syracuse University that it is extremely important to have access to water, among other things, to support a project of this scale. Water serves a critical role in the chip manufacturing process because a significant amount of water is needed to rinse and clean silicon wafers as they are being manufactured. The manufacturing complex could consume up to 10 million gallons of water per day, enough to supply a whole town or village. OCWA is anticipated to be a significant contributor of supplying the water Micron needs.