Skip to content
S3776Senate2009-2010 Session

Requires local government officials, school district superintendent and landowners to be notified of a petroleum discharge

Sponsor Antoine M. ThompsonSD-60Affects Finance
Status
In Senate Committee
Finance
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Finance

What's happening

Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.

Why it matters

The daily · weekday mornings

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

Primary sponsor
Antoine M. Thompson

Senator · Senate District 60

No co-sponsors yet.

History

  1. Reported and committed to finance
  2. Referred to environmental conservation
  3. Print number 3776a
  4. Amend and recommit to finance
  5. Reported and committed to finance
  6. Referred to environmental conservation

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

Title of bill

An act to amend the navigation law, in relation to notification of petroleum discharge

Purpose or general idea of bill

This bill would require the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), upon notification of a petroleum discharge, to immediately notify all potentially impacted tenants and neighbors.

Summary of specific provisions

Adds a new subdivision 2 to section 175 of the navigation law to require DEC to immediately notify all landowners or tenants adjacent to the site of a petroleum discharge and/or any nearby landowners or tenants whose property or drinking water supply may be potentially impacted by such discharge.

Justification

Current law requires any person responsible for a petroleum discharge to notify DEC within two hours. This requirement is inadequate in that neighbors are not notified of the release. This bill, by requiring DEC to notify neighboring property owners and tenants of a petroleum discharge, will help protect nearby property owners and their drinking water supply. A discharge from an underground gasoline storage tank in New Windsor, New York contaminated the drinking water of nearby residents. DEC knew for over a year that the release had contaminated the groundwater but failed to notify the surrounding neighbors. Many of the affected residents complained of headaches, nausea, dizziness, skin rashes and sore throats. The gasoline contained MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) the additive blended with gasoline to produce oxygenated fuel. These people were drinking contaminated water for close to a year without any official notification from state and county officials.

Prior legislative history

06/25/01 passed assembly (A.5200) 03/13/02 passed assembly 03/03/03 passed assembly (A3647) 02/02/04 passed assembly 2005-06 A.5387 passed assembly 2007-08 A.843 passed assembly, delivered to senate, referred to environmental conservation

Fiscal implications

DEC will incur some minor additional administrative costs in carrying out the provisions of this bill.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.