Bill Text: NY S06268 | 2011-2012 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Enacts the "sewage pollution right to know act"; requires publicly owned treatment works to report discharges of untreated or partially treated sewage.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 14-7)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-06-21 - SUBSTITUTED BY A10585A [S06268 Detail]
Download: New_York-2011-S06268-Amended.html
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K ________________________________________________________________________ 6268--A I N S E N A T E January 18, 2012 ___________ Introduced by Sens. GRISANTI, HASSELL-THOMPSON, KRUEGER, MARTINS, OPPEN- HEIMER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to creating the sewage pollution right to know act THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM- BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "sewage 2 pollution right to know act". 3 S 2. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new 4 section 17-0826-a to read as follows: 5 S 17-0826-A. MANDATORY SEWAGE RELEASE REPORTING AND NOTIFICATION BY 6 PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS. 7 1. PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS SHALL IMMEDIATELY, BUT IN NO CASE 8 LATER THAN TWO HOURS, REPORT DISCHARGES OF UNTREATED OR PARTIALLY TREAT- 9 ED SEWAGE, INCLUDING COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS, TO THE DEPARTMENT AND THE 10 LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT. SUCH REPORT SHALL, AT A MINIMUM, INCLUDE: 11 (A) THE VOLUME AND TREATED STATE OF THE DISCHARGE; 12 (B) THE DATE AND TIME OF THE DISCHARGE; 13 (C) THE EXPECTED DURATION OF THE DISCHARGE TO THE EXTENT IT IS KNOWA- 14 BLE; 15 (D) A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE STEPS BEING TAKEN TO CONTAIN THE 16 DISCHARGE; AND 17 (E) THE LOCATION OF THE DISCHARGE, WITH THE MAXIMUM LEVEL OF SPECIFIC- 18 ITY POSSIBLE. 19 2. IN ADDITION TO SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION, AS SOON AS POSSI- 20 BLE, BUT NO LATER THAN FOUR HOURS AFTER THE DISCHARGE, THE PUBLICLY 21 OWNED TREATMENT WORKS SHALL NOTIFY THE NEW YORK STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, 22 THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE MUNICIPALITY IN WHICH THE DISCHARGE 23 OCCURRED AND THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ANY ADJOINING MUNICIPALITY THAT MAY 24 BE AFFECTED. NOTIFICATION SHALL ALSO BE PROVIDED WITHIN THE SAME TIME- EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13941-02-2 S. 6268--A 2 1 FRAME TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC THROUGH LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS, NEWSPAPERS AND 2 ANY OTHER MEDIA AVAILABLE. 3 3. THE DEPARTMENT SHALL POST REPORTED INFORMATION ON ITS WEBSITE EXPE- 4 DITIOUSLY AND SHALL PREPARE AN ANNUAL PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS 5 DISCHARGE REPORT EACH YEAR. THE REPORT SHALL, AT A MINIMUM, INCLUDE: THE 6 TOTAL NUMBER OF DISCHARGES, DETAILS OF SUCH DISCHARGES INCLUDING THE 7 VOLUME AND TREATED STATE OF THE DISCHARGE, AND THE DURATION AND LOCATION 8 OF EACH DISCHARGE; AS WELL AS ANY REMEDIAL RESPONSES TAKEN TO MITIGATE 9 IMPACTS AND AVOID FURTHER DISCHARGES. 10 S 3. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2013. Effective imme- 11 diately, the department of environmental conservation is authorized to 12 promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the timely implementation 13 of this act on its effective date.