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Near Syracuse, the Solvay Process Company began using brine as a raw material in its soda ash manufacturing plant in~4 (Luther, 1896). The company dri~1 a series of exploratory µ•ells south of Syracuse, ultimately covering rock salt in Tully Valley in 888 at a depth of 1,216 feet (Luther, 1896; Phalen, 1923). Thus began the hundred-year operational history of New York's largest solution mining field, with respect to both number of wells drilled and volume of salt v.•ithdrawm. Brine produced at Tully Valley was transported to the soda ash plant near Syracuse via a 20-mile long gravity pipeline. The fifteen years following the drilling of the Pioneer well were hectic ones for Ne~v York's solution mining industry. By 1893, the year lVemer (1917) declared the peak of the early solution mining industry in the state, 24 evaporation plants were in operation using 75 wells. Excluding Tully Valley, solution mining wells were located in R'yoming, Livingston, Genesee and Tompkins Counties in 1893 (Merrill, 1893). Brine fields were small, averaging about three wells each. Wemer (1917) states that after 1593, overproduction resulted in industry reorganization and consolidation. Many of the early plants were acquired and closed by the International Salt Company shonly after the turn of the century. Table 3 summarizes al] solution mining facilities known to have existed in Neu• York since 1 STS. Table 3. Solution salt minine in New York. IS7S-199> County Number of active fields Number of abandoned fields Number oflmownsolution mining wells drilled Yearfint sell drilled Year last field abandoned Genesee 0 2 11 1878 after 1917 Livingston 0 9 25 1883 after 1917 Onondaga 0 I 162 1888 1988 Ontario 0 I 1 1384 un}:nown Schuyler 2 ! 88 IS93 -- Tompkins 0 3 27 189] 1952 lL'yoming 3 24 ??7 1878 -- TOTAL, 5 41 551 Merrill (1893) and others describe the cavern development methods used zt the small ~\`}•oming and Livingston County brine fields during the £rst few }•ears of New York's solution mining industry. Single well caverns were common, with fresh water introduced through the annulus and brine ~vithdraw•n by pumping through the tubing (see Figure 2). R'here water-bearing formations were present above the salt, operators typically allowed water to flow from these formations down through the annulus to contact and dissolve salt. `,Then a sufficient water source «as not zvailable do«•nhole, operators pumped water from nearby creeks or springs do«n the annulus to force brine up through the tubing. When eavems at multi-well fields became interconnected, operators began using separate wells for injection and withdra~ti•al. The Division of 1`4ineral Resources is not a«•are of subsidence damage, sinkholes, or 5 ?~~