What's happening
Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.
Why it matters
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to environmental conservation
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Prohibits the use of atrazine
In Senate Committee · Environmental Conservation · Sponsor James S. Alesi
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A11122
Title of bill
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to prohibiting the use of the herbicide atrazine
Purpose of the bill
The purpose of the bill is to ban the remaining uses of Atrazine, which are agricultural,
Summary of provisions
The bill amends the Environmental Conservation Law to add a new Section 37-0331, that would make it unlawful for any person to distribute, sell, offer for sale or use the pesticide atrazine within the state or deliver for transportation or transport. in intra- state commerce or between points within this state through any point outside this State.
Justification
Atrazine has been a highly controversial pesticide because of its effects on non-target species such as amphibians and because of widespread contamination of waterways and drinking water supplies. The European Union has banned all uses of atrazine in 2004. New York State still has 59 atrazine products registered for agricul- tural use as restricted use pesticides with 30 of these products prohib- ited from use on Long Island.
Atrazine has long been known to contaminate drinking water supplies of millions of Americans. Recent research showed that atrazine produces gender-bending effects on male frogs, chemically castrating some and turning others into females. A researcher at the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley exposed frogs to atrazine levels comparable to those allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency. These frogs began to grow eggs in their testes and nearly all males were unable to reproduce because of low testosterone and sperm counts. These studies raise new questions about the safety of atrazine, which other studies have linked to human birth defects as an endocrine disruptor effects, possible carcinogenic effects and epidemiological connection to low sperm counts, leading some researchers to call for a ban in the U.S.
Approximately 75% of stream water samples and 40# of groundwater samples contain atrazine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Natural Resources Defense Council detected atrazine in 90% of tap water samples from 139 water systems,
The effect of atrazine, which is widely used in conservation tillage systems, on yields has been estimated at only 3-4%. The low effective- ness of this pesticide coupled with the damaging ecological and poten- tial human effects makes the case for banning all uses of atrazine in New York State.
Prior legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
This act would take effect on January 1, 2010, except that DEC can promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement the act.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.