What's happening
This bill creates the New York State Environmental Justice Act, establishing policies and task forces to address environmental inequities in minority and low-income communities.
Why it matters
Mandates direct community input and state accountability. The bill requires state agencies to actively engage minority and low-income communities in decisions impacting environmental quality, aiming to counteract historic patterns where such voices were often excluded.
Targets disproportionate environmental burdens. Agencies must periodically review and adjust programs to address and reduce the higher exposure to environmental hazards faced by certain communities, potentially shifting where and how resources for enforcement and remediation are deployed.
Creates formal oversight and action mechanisms. The Environmental Justice Advisory Council and Task Force are established to evaluate complaints, develop community-specific action plans, and ensure ongoing monitoring—providing structured ways for residents to seek redress and track government response.
Could influence future permitting and siting decisions. By requiring the use of environmental and health data to inform strategies, the bill may make it more difficult for polluting facilities to be concentrated in already-burdened neighborhoods, possibly reshaping industrial development patterns statewide.
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Who cares
Low-income communities and communities of color
The bill would target environmental enforcement, remediation, siting and permitting strategies to address facility impacts in these communities and allow any community to petition for action on disproportionate environmental health risks.
- Watching
Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies
The bill would require environmental justice policies and periodic program reviews, create an advisory council and establish a multi-agency task force to recommend and monitor community action plans.
Industrial and commercial facility owners
Facilities in communities of color and low-income communities could face targeted compliance, enforcement, remediation, siting and permitting strategies based on environmental and public health data.
Grassroots and faith-based community organizations
These organizations would hold one-third of the seats on a 15-member environmental justice advisory council that would advise the department and task force.
Headline styles
Guarantee Environmental Justice
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to environmental conservation
- 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.
Ensure Fair Environmental Treatment
In Assembly Committee · Environmental Conservation · Sponsor Crystal Peoples-Stokes
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2709
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 17, 2017
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to establishing the "New York state environmental justice act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known as the "New York state environmental justice act".
§ 2. Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature hereby finds and declares that:
1. Racial and ethnic minority populations and low-income communities bear a disproportionate share of the health risks caused by polluted air and contaminated water, and by solid waste landfills, hazardous waste facilities, waste water treatment plants, waste incinerators, and other similar projects.
2. This disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on minority and low-income communities is largely the result of past governmental decisions.
3. The federal government underscored the importance of environmental justice in executive order 12898 and created the national environmental justice advisory council to promote environmental justice in the environmental protection agency's policies, programs, initiatives and activities.
4. The state is committed to ensuring that communities are afforded fair treatment and meaningful involvement in decision-making regardless of race, color, ethnicity, religion, income or education level.
The purpose of this act is to establish governmental procedures in order to safeguard residents' health and welfare, and achieve environmental justice.
§ 3. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new article 74 to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03455-01-7
S. 2709 2
ARTICLE 74
NEW YORK STATE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACT Section 74-1001. Definitions.
74-1002. Implementation of environmental justice policies.
74-1003. Environmental justice task force. § 74-1001. Definitions.
For purposes of this article "environmental justice" means the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures and incomes in the development, adoption, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and policies. § 74-1002. Implementation of environmental justice policies.
1. All state agencies, boards, commissions and other bodies involved in decisions that may affect environmental quality shall adopt and implement environmental justice policies providing meaningful opportunities for involvement to all people, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, religion, income or education level.
2. All state programs and policies designed to protect the environment shall be reviewed periodically to ensure that program implementation and dissemination of information meet the needs of low-income and minority communities, and seek to address disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards.
3. The department will use available environmental and public health data to identify existing and proposed industrial and commercial facilities and areas in communities of color and low-income communities for which compliance, enforcement, remediation, siting and permitting strategies will be targeted to address impacts from these facilities.
4. The department shall create an environmental justice advisory council to advise the department and the environmental justice task force on environmental justice issues. The council shall consist of fifteen individuals and will meet at least quarterly. The council shall annually select a chairperson from its membership and shall have a composition of one-third membership from grassroots or faith-based community organizations, with additional membership to include representatives from the following communities: academic public health, statewide environmental, civil rights and public health organizations, large and small business and industry, municipal and county officials, and organized labor. § 74-1003. Environmental justice task force.
1. The commissioner and the commissioner of the department of health, or their appointed designees, shall convene a multi-agency task force, to be named the environmental justice task force. This task force will include senior management designees from the governor counsel's office, the attorney general's office, the departments of health, agriculture and markets, transportation, and education. The task force shall be an advisory body, the purpose of which is to make recommendations to state agency heads regarding actions to be taken to address environmental justice issues consistent with each agency's existing statutory and regulatory authority. The task force is authorized to consult with, and expand its membership to, other state agencies as needed to address concerns raised in affected communities.
2. Any community may file a petition with the task force that asserts that residents and workers in the community are subject to disproportionate adverse exposure to environmental health risks, or disproportionate adverse effects resulting from the implementation of laws affecting public health or the environment.
3. The task force shall identify a set of communities from the petitions filed, based on selection criteria developed by the task
S. 2709 3
force, including consideration of state agency resource constraints. The task force shall meet directly with the selected communities to understand their concerns.
4. The task force shall develop an action plan for each of the selected communities after consultation with the citizens, as well as local and county government as relevant, that will address environmental factors that affect community health. The action plan shall clearly delineate the steps that will be taken in each of the selected communities to reduce existing environmental burdens and avoid or reduce the imposition of additional environmental burdens through allocations of resources, exercise of regulatory discretion, and development of new standards and protections. The action plan, which shall be developed in consultation with the environmental justice advisory council, will specify community deliverables, a timeframe for implementation, and the justification and availability of financial and other resources to implement the plan. The task force shall present the action plan to the relevant departments, recommending its implementation.
5. The task force shall monitor the implementation of each action plan in the selected communities, and shall make recommendations to state agencies as necessary to facilitate implementation of the action plans. Agencies shall implement the strategy to the fullest extent practicable in light of statutory and resource constraints.
§ 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018; provided however, that the environmental justice task force and the environmental justice advisory council shall be established and operating by October 1, 2018.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to establishing the "New York state environmental justice act"
Purpose
The purpose of the legislation is to develop and implement a procedure within the State's agencies, boards and commission to insure that all New York's communities are afforded fair treatment and meaningful involvement in environmental decision-making.
Summary of provisions
Section one entitles the act as THE NEW YORK STATE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACT.
Section two declares the findings that racial and ethnic minority populations and low-income communities bear a disproportionate share of health risks caused by polluted air and contaminated water, solid waste landfills, hazardous waste facilities, waste water treatment plants, waste incinerators, and other similar projects.
Section three defines environmental justice, requires all agencies to adopt and implement environmental justice policies, requires all state environmental protection programs and policies to be periodically reviewed, requires the Department of Environmental Conservation to create an Environmental Justice Advisory Council and an Environmental Justice Task Force.
Section 4 is the effective date, providing that the Environmental Justice Advisory Council and the Environmental Justice Task Force will be established and operating by October 1, 2017.
Justification
Environmental justice efforts focus on improving the environment in under-served communities, specifically minority and low-income communities, and addressing disproportionate adverse environmental impacts that may exist in those communities.
This legislation seeks to establish a way for the environmental treatment of New York's diverse communities to be fair and equitable, meaning that no group of people, including a racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of state programs and policies.
By establishing in law both an Environmental Justice Advisory Council and an Environmental Justice Task Force, the State of New York will be committed to ensuring that communities are afforded fair treatment and meaningful involvement in decision-making through governmental Procedures which will safeguard residents' health and welfare, and achieve environmental justice.
Legislative history
2015-16: S.1385A/A.2996A - Amend and Recommit to Environmental Conservation 2013-14: S.1619A/A.3568A - Referred to Environmental Conservation 2011-12: S.1146/A.607 - Died in Environmental Conservation 2010: S.2454/A.1925 - Referred to Environmental Conservation 2008: S.2651/A.6229 - Referred to Environmental Conservation 2006: S.4609 - Referred to Environmental Conservation
Fiscal implications
None to state.
Local fiscal implications
None to localities.
Effective date
The act shall take effect July 1, 2018; however, the Environmental Justice Task Force and the Environmental Justice Advisory Council will be established and operating by October 1, 2018.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.