Onondaga County and New York State officials have garnered [1] $39.2 million in additional funds from a General Motors trust fund to cleanse pollution in Salina, according to a proposed settlement filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Cleanup work had been paid for by GM since 1993, but delayed since the automaker declared bankruptcy.The new money [2] adds to the $33.2 million that the trust fund agreed to pay in March 2011 to finish the cleanup of the closed GM Inland Fisher Guide plant in Salina and upper portions of Ley Creek in Salina. The new funds will go toward restoration of lower portions of the creek.

The money will come from a $899 million federal trust fund established as part of a settlement between the federal government and the old GM as part of the car company's bankruptcy and federal bailout. The federal trust is made up of the assets left over when GM declared bankruptcy and reorganized as a new company. It is the largest environmental trust fund in U.S. history. The fund is intended to pay for cleanup and redevelopment of 89 former GM properties across the nation.

General Motors discontinued its own manufacturing operations at the site [3] in 1993, but various other manufacturing companies now lease space there. In the early 1970s, GM stopped plating, buffing, forming and finishing metal auto parts at the plant, then switched over to the manufacture and painting of plastic body trim components.

Some wastes associated with the injection molding and painting operations included PCB-contaminated hydraulic oils, waste solvents and paint sludge.