Senate Bill S4511

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S4511

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the navigation law, in relation to
notification of discharge by the department of environmental
conservation

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :  Section 1 amends § 175 of the Navigation Law
to require the Department of Environmental Conservation, after a
petroleum discharge or spill, to notify the surrounding landowners and
tenants. Section 2 enumerates the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :  Despite major and minor underground spills or
discharges of petroleum in New York, there is no statutory requirement
that the Department of Environmental Conservation notify surrounding
property owners or tenants. New York State has approximately 52,000
storage facilities which involve an estimated 125,000 bulk storage
tanks. Leaks and spills occur as a result of poor housekeeping,
overfilling of tanks, loading and unloading mistakes, and poor
maintenance and inspection.  In 2004, there were 15,694 spills
reported to the Department of Environmental Conservation. In 2001, for
example, the U.S.  Environmental Protection Agency inspected 33
mid-Hudson Valley gasoline service stations. With additional
information provided by the owner of the stations, the EPA determined
that 60 gas stations were operating tanks in violation of federal law.
The stations serve twenty New York counties. In 1993, in Flanders,
gasoline fumes in a residential basement helped DEC to determine that
              

anywhere between 100 and 1,000 gallons of petroleum had leaked from an
underground storage tank for a nearby gasoline service station.
Private wells were tested and determined to be contaminated. Private
drinking water wells are the primary source of potable water for
businesses and residences near the station. Additional statewide
examples, large and small, exist including the Gowanus Canal in
Brooklyn, Newtown Creek in Queens, New Windsor and Liberty in Orange
County. Underground storage tanks range in capacity from a few hundred
to 50,000 or more gallons, and are used to store gasoline, heating oil
and other fuels, waste oil and hazardous substances at gas stations,
marinas, government facilities and large industrial sites. Leaks from
tanks often contaminate the soil around the tanks, and can cause
unhealthy gasoline vapors to settle into the basements of private
homes and apartment buildings. Underground storage tanks have
historically been the nation's number one source of ground water
contamination, with over 412,000 confirmed releases and spills
reported nationwide as of 2001. EPA and states' underground storage
tank regulations were put in place to prevent releases of petroleum,
and, if a release does occur, to insure that it is addressed
immediately. Surrounding homeowners and tenants should know when that
is happening.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :  2005-06: Senate Environmental Conservation
Cmte.  2007-08: Senate Environmental Conservation Cmte.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :  None to the state. Costs to be borne by
violators.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :  This act shall take effect thirty days after it
shall have become a law.