Senate Bill S1223

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S1223

SPONSOR: BORRELLO
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
establishing a moratorium on the building or placing of any permanent or
semi-permanent wind turbine on bodies of freshwater located within the
state or off the coastline

 
PURPOSE:

To establish a moratorium on the building or placing of any permanent or
semi-permanent wind turbine on bodies of freshwater in New York State or
any freshwater located within the jurisdiction and control of the state.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section one amends environmental conservation law by adding section
13-0107 to create a moratorium on the building or placing of permanent
or semi-permanent wind turbines on bodies of freshwater in New York
State or any freshwater within the jurisdiction and control of the
              

state. A moratorium is also established for the placement of any infras-
tructure used to support any wind turbines located in federal waters or
waters within the jurisdiction and control of another state.

Section two provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Only about 0.4% of the Earth's total water is accessible and drinkable,
according to worldatlas.com. Although water covers more than 70% of the
Earth's surface, the vast majority (approximately 97.5%) is salt water.
Salt water, abundant on our planet, is not only undrinkable, but is also
lethal if consumed in large enough quantities, according to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Freshwater, critically important for life, is actually rare on our plan-
et, because it is mostly inaccessible or nearly impossible to obtain and
use. More than two-thirds of the planet's freshwater is frozen, located
in the polar ice caps or glaciers. Some freshwater is located at depths
too far underground to reach. Thus, less than half of one percent of all
the Earth's water is actually drinkable.

The Great Lakes are the single largest source of drinking water in the
world, accounting for approximately one fifth of the freshwater on the
entire planet. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims
that 84% of the North America's surface freshwater is contained in these
five lakes, including Lakes Erie and Ontario that each border New York
State. About eleven million people rely on Lake Erie for their drinking
water. It is also a primary source of fresh water needed for manufactur-
ing and food processing, which are both major industries for NYS. Since
so many depend on the freshwater provided by these lakes, one must ask,
are the alleged benefits associated with placing offshore induStrial
wind turbines in the lakes worth the risk?

Currently, there are many unanswered questions and tremendous evidence
that suggests industrial wind turbines present a threat to our environ-
ment, including threatening drinking water, wildlife and the delicate
ecosystem of our freshwater lakes. Concerns have been raised regarding
large sediment plumes created by offshore wind farms in the North Sea
and can be observed by NASA satellites. More importantly are the unan-
swered questions, regarding the effects that these plumes, sometimes
more than one-hundred feet long, have on wildlife including fish and
birds. It is not unreasonable to ask, if wind turbines will create simi-
lar sediment plumes on freshwater? If so, what effect, if any, will the
transport of large amounts of sediment have on the fish and birds living
in and around the Great Lakes? What effect, if any, will the transport
of sediment have for those that fish professionally or recreationally in
the Great Lakes? Even though the lakes are seemingly vast, they are
relatively small in comparison to the oceans and any impacts from the
industrialization of the waters of our Great Lakes would be magnified.

The history of the Great Lakes has seen the vital freshwater it provides
threatened in the not-so-distant past. By the late 1960s, Lake Erie was
declared a "dead lake" by several publications because it was so
polluted. We have come a long way in the last 50 years to bring Lake
Erie back from the brink of death, as outline in the best-selling book
'The Death and Life of the Great Lakes', by Dan Eagan.

Our industrial past is what brought about the near death of Lake Erie.
And while the lake has rebounded, the toxins that poured into the lake
for over a century are still buried not far below the surface of the
lakebed. Disturbing the lakebed with the construction of industrial wind
turbines and pouring millions of tons of concrete, along with steel,
fiberglass, oil and other needed materials, into the water will have
unpredictable and potentially disastrous results.  The environmental
devastation and threat to the drinking water of millions is unknown
because nowhere in the world has this ever been done on any large scale
in fresh water.

With so many unanswered questions, the Province of Ontario (Cana-
da)decided to issue a moratorium on the placement of wind turbines on
Lake Ontario in 2011. In a formal statement pertaining to the moratori-
um, Former Minister of the Environment for Ontario, John Wilkinson said,
"I was concerned about how this might displace the historically contam-
inated sediment on the lakebed and whether it would end up in the drink-
ing water system." Mr. Wilkinson also voiced concerns related
to"...noise emissions, disturbance of benthic life forms, navigation,
potential structural failure, safety hazards and decommissioning."

Although numerous studies have been conducted, none has shown conclu-
sively, that offshore industrial wind turbines create no adverse impact
for freshwater lakes and those that rely on them. One reason for scant
research on wind farms and freshwater is that nearly all of the world's
off shore wind turbines are located in salt water.  For this reason, the
Government of Ontario has decided against removing the moratorium on
wind turbines.

An issue specific to the Great Lakes and its international border is the
detrimental impact a major offshore industrial wind turbine array in the
Great Lakes would have on border security. Specifically, representatives
from the Department of Homeland Security state that industrial wind
turbines in Lake Erie would impede radar systems along the US coastline
- a critical tool to prevent the illegal transport of people and contra-
band into our Country as well as the fight against terrorism.

From a cost-benefit standpoint, the tremendous cost of constructing and
maintaining offshore industrial wind turbines results in generating
electricity that cost more than double that of land-based wind turbines
and three to five times more than electricity generated by natural gas
powered energy plants.

These are just a few of the questions pertaining to offshore industrial
wind turbines. Further concerns regarding commercial fishing, noise, the
inadvertent killing of birds and bats, harmful effects on scenic views,
potential decreases to property values and the loss of property tax
revenue, as well as the questionable benefit in increased energy
production when fully considered with these unanswered questions and
concerns, explains why, at the very least, additional information is
needed. Right now, without answers to these critical questions, placing
wind turbines on bodies of fresh water, including Lakes Erie and Ontar-
io, is far too dangerous. When one considers that the vast majority,
more than 97% of this planet's water is salt water, one must also ques-
tion the need to place offshore wind turbines on freshwater bodies,
rather than on one of the Earth's immense oceans. For all of these
reasons, the first freshwater wind farm in North America should not be
located in New York waters, without first obtaining evidence that indus-
trial wind turbines pose no threat to the environment and our vital
freshwater supply that is essential for all life.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022: S. 6314 Referred to Environmental Conservation

2019/20: S.6718 Referred to Environmental Conservation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.