Senate Bill S5123A

                                BILL NUMBER:S5123

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in
relation to prohibiting the importation of any waste product or
byproduct from hydraulic fracturing operations

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this legislation is to prevent the disposal of
hydraulic fracturing waste from out of state.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

This legislation amends the environmental conservation law to prohibit
hydraulic fracturing waste or waste by-products from being shipped
into New York State for disposal purposes.

JUSTIFICATION:

New York State is currently the recipient of waste products from
hydraulic fracturing disposal from other States which are conducting
high volume hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "fracking".
This oil and gas wastewater can legally be disposed of at municipal
water treatment plants because it is currently exempt from the federal
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which generally
regulates the handling and disposal of oil and gas drilling waste
              

water. As the result of this exemption, natural gas operators
transporting fracking wastewater are not considered to be transporting
or receiving "hazardous" waste, and thus are not required to meet the
safeguards established by RCRA regulations. In the absence of federal
regulations, states regulate the handling, storage, and transport of
fracking wastewater, including residuals.

In New York State, high volume hydraulic fracturing has not been
authorized, and 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
to be disposed of 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.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has commented on New
York's proposed fracking rules, saying that the state should ban the
use of fracking brine on roads because pollutants could make their way
into aquifers and waterways through infiltration and storm runoff. The
agency also 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. The City of Niagara Falls and Buffalo
have both adopted local legislation banning the treatment, transport,
storage and disposal of drilling fluids within city limits.


PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This bill shall take effect immediately.