What's happening
This bill requires a comprehensive health impact assessment for natural gas compressor stations in New York, including public review and comment.
Why it matters
Mandates a rigorous, science-based evaluation. By requiring the assessment to follow a model recommended by the CDC, the bill ensures that natural gas compressor stations are evaluated using credible, standardized public health methods, potentially increasing trust in findings and recommendations.
Addresses community-specific and statewide impacts. The bill requires an analysis of both localized and broader health risks, and specifically calls for identification of disparate impacts on different communities, which could highlight or help address environmental justice concerns.
Links health impacts to economic costs. The assessment must estimate the costs of health impacts to governments, insurers, employers, and healthcare systems, making the financial implications of compressor stations clearer for policymakers and the public.
Ensures robust public participation and oversight. With requirements for detailed public review, multiple hearings, and the possibility for revised drafts based on feedback, the process is designed to be transparent and responsive, potentially leading to more community-informed decision making.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Study Compressor Station Health Risks
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Reported referred to ways and means
- Referred to environmental conservation
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
11042
IN ASSEMBLY
May 31, 2018
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Englebright) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to require a health impact assessment for natural gas compressor stations in New York
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. A school of public health within the state university of New York shall conduct a comprehensive health impact assessment following a model recommended by the centers for disease control and prevention to examine potential public health impacts that could be caused by natural gas compressor stations. For the purposes of this act, health impact assessment shall mean a combination of procedures, methods, and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.
§ 2. Prior to the commencement of such assessment, the school of public health conducting such assessment shall prepare a scoping document that will establish the parameters of the health impact assessment. The scoping document shall include the analyses contained in this act, as well as any other potential analyses to be conducted, and shall be subject to public review, comment and revision.
§ 3. Such health impact assessment of natural gas compressor stations shall include, at a minimum, the following analyses:
(a) Identification and assessment of the magnitude, nature and extent of potential localized and statewide health impacts utilizing multiple methods and information derived from a combination of public health tools including risk assessment, scientific literature, and population analysis;
(b) Identification and assessment of disparate community-level impacts;
(c) Estimated costs of any health impacts to the state, local governments, health insurers, employers and the state's public and private health care systems as a whole;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15648-01-8
A. 11042 2
(d) Recommendations for any mitigation of potential health impacts and the methods and evidence used to arrive at such recommendations; and
(e) A long-term plan for monitoring, evaluating, tracking and mitigating potential health impacts.
§ 4. A draft of such health impact assessment shall be released for public review and comment. The school of public health conducting such assessment shall conduct a minimum of two public hearings regarding the findings of the draft health impact assessment and allow at least one hundred eighty days for the public to submit comments. Upon the closing of the public comment period, such school of public health shall categorize, review and respond to all public comments. If substantive changes to the health impact assessment are made as a result of public comments, such school of public health shall issue a revised draft. Such revised draft shall similarly be subject to public comment and review, in compliance with the parameters set out for the initial draft.
§ 5. After responding to all public comments as required by section four of this act, and upon completion of the health impact assessment, such school of public health shall submit the completed health impact assessment to the New York state department of health. The department of health shall make such health impact assessment available to the public and deliver copies to the legislature and the governor for review.
§ 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.