Salt Mining & Manufacturing

Salt Mining:

In Schuyler County, salt was discovered as hopeful gas and oil companies drilled for their valued product. That surprise mineral found instead keeps two refining companies successfully operating today. Located 1,800 or more feet below the ground's surface, a very large salt vein, which includes the Watkins Glen mines, sit on the Appalachian Basin. This is all that remains of a sea that once covered parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Ontario, Canada.

Although it is essential to many modern industrial processes, the basic methods of producing salt haven't changed for centuries: boil, evaporate and mine. When the salt is mined, the product is brought to the settling tanks by a hydraulic mining process.

DYK: Historically, the salt was also one of the contents of mineral springs and wells which once supplied local where people came from far and wide to be "cured" of a variety of ailments in by-gone times.

 Evaporated salt is extracted from underground deposits lying anywhere from 500 to 2,800 feet beneath the surface. Fresh water is forced down a shaft, which dissolves the salt inside the deposit. The saturated water, called brine, is pumped back up to the surface where the water is removed through a heat process in a vacuum evaporator. This process yields evaporated salt, the purest of all salts: almost 100% pure sodium chloride.

The two major salt companies on Seneca Lake, US Salt and Cargill Salt, Inc., produce primarily table salt and rock salt.

Gas Drilling:

Those looking for gas and oil were scantily rewarded. A few wells produced sufficient gas for some lucky landowners to use in homes or businesses for a few years. The only commercially viable gas bed was found in the Tyrone area in the late 1920's. This is now managed in a compressor station by Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation. In the Town of Reading, Teppco has a large propane gas installation as well.

In recent years, new fields of natural gas have been discovered in the area, and companies are currently drilling to tap into those resources. This Trenton River Bed Formation is said to be the largest field of natural gas on the East Coast.

Other Manufacturing:

Other major manufacturing interests are: Shepard-Niles in Montour Falls which is one of the oldest crane and hoist manufacturers in the United States. Cotton-Hanlon in the hamlet of Cayuta, whose business is currently long term profitable management of nearly 33,000 acres of timberland and Seneca Hardwoods in Odessa, which manufactures hard wood flooring.