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Highlights
New York Legislative Session Wrap Up
The NY legislative session wrapped up in June, and there are some significant achievements to celebrate! We want to congratulate and thank the new Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, Senator Harckham, and the new Chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, for their hard work! Thank you also to our coalition partners and everyone who contacted their legislators to get these crucial bills passed this session. Some of our priority bills passed by the state legislature (still need to be signed by the Governor):
Birds and Bees Protection Act: Bans the most harmful and unnecessary uses of neonic pesticides, eliminating 85%-90% of all neonics used in NY. This will protect our pollinators, water quality and human health. Now we need Governor Hochul to sign the bill into law!
Expanding Stream Protections: Protects an additional 41,000 miles of streams across the state, which will help protect drinking water quality and habitat for fish and wildlife.
Lead Pipes Right to Know: Creates an inventory of lead pipes throughout the state and makes this information public, giving residents the right to know if they are drinking water that may be contaminated with lead.
Offshore Wind Transmission: Requires NYSERDA to lead a transmission planning process for offshore wind and authorizes temporary parkland alienation in City of Long Beach for the offshore wind cable connection for Empire Wind 2, which will power 600,000 homes on Long Island.
Let’s not forget the major victories from the state budget that was passed earlier in the session, including matching an all-time high of $400 million for the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and $500 million to upgrade sewer and drinking water infrastructure. Unfortunately, one of our big priority bills, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would reduce plastic packaging pollution and save local governments hundreds of millions of dollars annually, didn’t pass this session. We’re already gearing up for the fight next year to pass this necessary legislation.
South Shore Estuary Reserve Program Celebrates 30th Anniversary!
We partnered with the New York Department of State to host the first South Shore Estuary Reserve (SSER) Conference. The conference celebrated 30 years of progress to restore this estuary and assessed restoration needs still needed in the future. Speakers included New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez and Dr. Chris Gobler from Stony Brook University. Thank you to all our great speakers and everyone who joined—it was a fantastic event!
Happenings
Pushing for Stronger PFAS Drinking Water Standards
New York had been a leader in its efforts to protect public health from PFAS “forever chemicals” in drinking water, having adopted some of the nation’s strictest drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS in 2020. Last year, the EPA proposed new federal drinking water standards of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS, which is significantly stronger than the NYS standard of 10 ppt. However, New York is pushing back against this new low standard and is rebuking the Biden Administration on several aspects of its proposed regulations. We attended the NYS Drinking Water Quality Council meeting in June to demand NY remain a leader in the fight to protect public health and ensure our state’s drinking water standards are reflective of the latest science, which indicates that there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS in drinking water. Reducing the standards from 10ppt to 4ppt would protect millions more New Yorkers from harmful PFAS.
Transitioning to Offshore Wind
New York is poised to be a national leader in offshore wind, with five wind farms already selected and a mandate of 9,000MW of offshore wind by 2035. This will not only bring environmental and health benefits to our communities but will also create thousands of jobs and make NY a hub of offshore wind development. We kept up our work on advancing offshore wind in June:
Talking Offshore Wind with Uniondale High School. In June, we officially concluded our “Transitioning to Renewable Energy” series with Uniondale High School and Community Wind for this school year. CCE staff gave climate change and offshore presentations to 45 classes with over 1100 students! We had an amazing time bringing the students to the Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center—the students learned about renewable energy, participated in taking wind readings, and saw a real wind turbine blade.
Open House on Empire Wind 2. Equinor hosted meetings this spring on Empire Wind 2, which will power over 600,000 homes in Nassau County via a cable connection to Island Park. We attended a productive June meeting in Long Beach—thanks to everyone who came out to talk about wind.
Fighting for Clean Water in Suffolk County
Nitrogen pollution impacts every waterway in Suffolk County. We successfully fought for state legislation that would allow Suffolk residents to vote on a clean water ballot initiative this November. Next, we needed the Suffolk County Legislature to put the issue on the ballot and let the public decide if an increase of 1/8 cent in the county sales tax should be dedicated to protecting water resources by fixing sewer and septic infrastructure. Despite years of work to get here and a large coalition of environmentalists, labor, chambers of commerce, civic organizations, and local businesses coming together in support, the Suffolk Majority voted no. This was a huge step backwards, but we’re not done fighting for clean water in Suffolk.
Understanding the Health Risks of 1,4-Dioxane on Long Island
Yale Superfund Research Center has crafted a study to better understand the impact of 1,4-dioxane exposure on Long Island residents. This spring, we launched our partnership with Yale to provide education and outreach to inform Long Islanders about this new, exciting program. If you live on Long Island and are interested in participating and finding out if you have been exposed to 1,4-dioxane, you can find out more here.
Welcome to our Summer Interns!
We’re excited to welcome our summer interns! Belen Gonzalez and Malvika Shrimali are part of the Yale Conservation Scholars Program. Belen attends Fordham University and Malvika attends College of William and Mary. Adrianna Gardocki is also joining our team for the summer—Adrianna is entering her senior year studying Environmental Economics at Binghamton University.
Be on the Watch for Harmful Algal Blooms
As we start enjoying summer here in New York, it is important to be aware of dangerous harmful algal blooms (HABs). HABs pose an immense threat to our communities’ drinking water, public health, outdoor recreation and wildlife. HABs are erupting across NY more frequently and more aggressively in NY waterbodies. To learn more about HABs and efforts taken to combat them on Cayuga Lake check out our short video. If you see a HAB in a lake or waterbody (looks like spilled green paint or pea soup), be sure to avoid it and report it using the DEC Suspicious Algal Bloom Report Form!
Announcing our New Board Member
CCE would like to introduce our newest board member, Lauren Sternberg. Lauren is the Communications Manager with Veolia North America. We have worked with Lauren for years to protect Long Island’s water quality and we’re excited to continue working with you as the newest members of our Board!
Upcoming: Suffolk County Executive Candidate Forum
We’ll be co-hosting the Suffolk County Executive Environmental Candidate Forum with the NY League of Conservation Voters Environmental Fund on July 17th at 6pm at Stony Brook University. Find out what candidates Ed Romaine (R) and Dave Calone (D) plan to do to protect our environment, public health, and our communities if they are elected. This is a free event but space is limited, so make sure to RSVP early!