Bill Text: NY S05983 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Prohibits the application of pesticides to certain local freshwater wetlands for local governments that have implemented a freshwater wetlands protection law; provides that any local law or ordinance adopted pursuant to this section shall take effect on the first day of January after it shall have been adopted.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-03-04 - REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION [S05983 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S05983-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          5983

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                      March 4, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sen. HARCKHAM -- 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 application of pesticides to certain local freshwater
          wetlands

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a
     2  new section 24-0513 to read as follows:
     3  § 24-0513. Local freshwater wetlands pesticide prohibition.
     4    1. A local government  that  has  implemented  a  freshwater  wetlands
     5  protection  law  or ordinance in accordance with section 24-0501 of this
     6  title may adopt a local law or ordinance to prohibit the application  of
     7  pesticides  to  wetlands  it regulates; provided, however, that any such
     8  law or ordinance shall  not  prohibit  pesticide  applications  for  the
     9  control of invasive species identified pursuant to title 17 of article 9
    10  of  this chapter, pests of significant public health importance, noxious
    11  weeds designated by the department as injurious to ecosystem health,  or
    12  for the protection of critical native plant species.
    13    2.  (a)  The  provisions  of  this  section  shall apply only to those
    14  wetlands which are hydrologically connected to any reservoir,  reservoir
    15  stem, class A waterway or other source of public water supply.
    16    (b)  The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit
    17  or limit the use or application of pesticides in connection with commer-
    18  cial agricultural activities nor to contradict any other  provisions  of
    19  this chapter relating to such use.
    20    3.  Any  local law or ordinance adopted pursuant to this section shall
    21  take effect on the first  day  of  January  after  it  shall  have  been
    22  adopted.
    23    §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
    24  have become a law.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD10703-01-5