BILL NUMBER:S2092

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 ("DEC") 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. According to the DEC, each year
it receives approximately 16,000 reports of confirmed and suspected
releases to the environment - roughly 90%. of the spills reported
involve petroleum products.

In 2001, for example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA")
              

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 500,000 confirmed
releases and spills reported nationwide as of 2011. 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.  2009: Environmental


Conservation Cmte.  2010: S.4511 - Environmental Conservation Cmte;
Notice of Committee
      Consideration - Requested; Reported and Committed
      to Finance; Reported and Committed to Rules 2012: S.4678
Environmental Conservation Cmte.  2013-14: S.1979 Cultural Affairs,
Tourism, Parks and Recreation

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.