What's happening
This bill prohibits transporting or shipping hydraulic fracturing (fracking) waste products into New York State for treatment, disposal, or storage.
Why it matters
Prevents New York from becoming a disposal site for out-of-state fracking waste. , potentially reducing risks of groundwater contamination, hazardous spills, and air pollution associated with such waste.
Closes a legal loophole. that previously allowed companies to transport hydraulic fracturing byproducts into New York for treatment or storage, even though fracking itself is already banned in the state.
Protects public health and the environment. by limiting exposure to chemicals and radioactive materials commonly found in fracking waste, which have been linked to a range of health concerns and ecological damage.
May impact waste management practices and costs. for fracking operations in neighboring states, possibly increasing pressure on those states to find safer or more sustainable disposal methods.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Ban Fracking Waste Shipments
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
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.
Ban Fracking Waste Transport
In Assembly Committee · Environmental Conservation · Sponsor Daniel O'Donnell
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
274
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 4, 2017
Introduced by Sens. HOYLMAN, ADDABBO, DILAN, KRUEGER, LATIMER, SERRANO -- 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 prohibiting the transportation or shipment of any waste product or byproduct from hydraulic fracturing operations
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new section 23-1712 to read as follows: § 23-1712. Prohibition on the transportation or shipment for the purpose
of treatment, discharge, disposal or storage of high volume
hydraulic fracturing waste product or by-product in New
York state.
No person, firm, partnership or corporation shall transport or ship for the purpose of treatment, discharge, disposal or storage, any high volume hydraulic fracturing waste product and/or by-product resulting from high volume hydraulic fracturing oil and/or gas exploration or production.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05115-01-7
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 prohibiting the transportation or shipment of any waste product or byproduct from hydraulic fracturing operations
Purpose
The purpose of this legislation is to prevent the disposal of high volume hydraulic fracturing waste from being transported or disposed of in New York State.
Summary of specific provisions
This legislation amends the environmental conservation law to prohibit high volume hydraulic fracturing waste or waste by-products from being transported or shipped into or out of New York State for treatment, discharge, disposal, or storage purposes.
Justification
New York State waste and treatment facilities are currently the recipient of waste products from hydraulic fracturing products and by-products. Waste products and by-products from hydraulic fracturing can legally be disposed of at municipal water treatment plants because the waste is currently exempt from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws. As the result of this exemption, natural gas operators transporting fracking waste are not considered to be transporting or receiving "hazardous" waste, and thus are not required to meet the safeguards established by RCRA and other regulations. In the absence of federal regulations, states regulate the handling, treatment, and storage of fracking waste.
New York State announced a ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing in December 2014, yet regulations for handling and disposing of this waste continue to undergo review. In addition, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has not completed its study of the possible health impacts of such waste products on drinking water resources and is working on national pretreatment standards for waste disposal in municipal sewage-treatment plants or private treatment plants, after finding that many of them are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater, and may be discharging pollutants to rivers and other streams. Additionally, the EPA warned that there was probably not enough capacity at out-of-state treatment plants to handle polluted water from New York.
In March of 2012, the Niagara Falls City Council blocked a proposal by its local waste treatment facility to accept fracking waste in order to offset declining revenues. Since then, at least 15 counties and many municipalities including New York City have adopted local legislation banning the treatment, transport, storage and disposal of drilling fluids within jurisdictional limits.
Prior legislative history
S.47 of 2015-2016 (Hoylman): Died in Environmental Conservation A.4943 of 2015-2016 (O'Donnell): Died in Environmental Conservation
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This bill shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.