Senate Bill S2193

                                BILL NUMBER:S2193

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the granting
of permits to mine

PURPOSE:
To prohibit the Department of Environmental Conservation from
approving an application or granting a permit to mine mineral
resources if the locality within which such mining is proposed to take
place has an effective local law or ordinance
prohibiting such activity at the location at which such mining is
proposed
to take place.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subdivision 3 of section 23-2703 of the
Environmental Conservation Law to provide that if mining is prohibited
by local law or ordinance
at the proposed location, the Department of Environmental
Conservation (nor any other agency in the State) may neither consider an
application for a permit to mine as complete, nor process an application
for a permit to mine.

Section 2 provides for the effective date.
              

EXISTING LAW:
Currently, Article 23 of the Environmental Conservation Law
(Mineral Resources) provides for a local government to be notified
when
an application has been made to the Department to mine within such
locality.  It also provides a process by which the chief officer
of the locality can inform the Department as to whether or not
mining is prohibited at the location by the local government.  The
current statute, however, allows the Department to ignore the local
land use controls and approve an application and grant a permit to
mine irrespective of such local controls, except within counties with
a population of one million or more which draws its primary source of
drinking water for the majority of the county residents from a designated
sole source aquifer (i.e.- Long Island).

JUSTIFICATION:
New York State has a strong tradition of municipal home rule.
Particularly in the area of land use control, New York statutes cedes
virtually all control to local governments, which are better
suited to respond to the needs of its inhabitants with respect to the
character of their community.
In the area of mining mineral resources, the state should not
abrogate this philosophy and, moreover, the Department of
Environmental Conservation should not expend the taxpayer's
resources to
review and grant a permit for an activity which is prohibited by local
regulation.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:


2009-2010: S.1258  - Referred to Environmental Conservation
2007-2008: S.448   - Referred to Environmental Conservation
2005-2006: S.315   - Referred to Environmental Conservation
2003-2004: S.477   - Referred to Environmental Conservation
2001-2002: S.4576  - Referred to Environmental Conservation
1999-2000: S.4967  - Referred to Environmental Conservation
1997-1998: S.1727  - Referred to Environmental Conservation
1995-1996: S.5582A - Referred to Environmental Conservation

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.