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Victories! Governor Hochul Signs Key Environmental Legislation into Law in NY
We had a very productive 2022, with several critical bills to protect New York’s environment and public health being signed into law. Thank you to Governor Hochul for signing these important bills into law in December:
30 by 30: Sets a state goal of conserving 30% of NY’s land and water by 2030
Carpet Recycling: Mandates that manufacturers, not taxpayers, fund recycling programs for carpets and bans dangerous PFAS chemicals in carpets
Making Polluters Pay: Requires companies that have contaminated drinking water with 1,4-dixoane, PFAS, and other toxic chemicals to pay the full cost of cleanup and installation of water treatment technologies.
Cumulative Impacts: Prevents the approval of environmental facilities, such as waste
management facilities, that would pollute in already overburdened disadvantaged communities.
Ban on PFAS chemicals in clothing: New York joins California in being the first two states to ban PFAS “forever chemicals” in clothing
Green Cemeteries: Allows natural organic reduction facilities that decompose bodies into soil as an eco-friendly alternative to burial or cremation
Unfortunately, a bill that would increase protection for small streams was not signed this year, but we will keep pushing forward with streams protection and other priority legislation, including banning neonic pesticides and reducing waste & improving recycling in 2023!
Tackling PFAS Contamination
We were hard at work advocating for NYS to adopt more stringent drinking water standards for PFAS— highly toxic chemicals that persist in our environment and are found in waterways throughout the nation. Last month, we launched a new interactive map that shows widespread PFAS contamination on Long Island in drinking water.
This data was compiled using 2021 annual drinking water quality reports. Our interactive map has become a meaningful educational tool for the public with over 800,000 views! If you haven’t yet, check out the map to see if there is PFAS in your drinking water district and get involved in our campaign to require stricter state drinking water standards for these toxic “forever chemicals.”
Final Federal Budget a Victory for the Great Lakes!
Late in December, Congress passed the final FY2023 federal budget, which contained victories for programs critical to the health of the Great Lakes. Highlights include $368 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, $3 million to continue a study on how to make Great Lakes coastal communities more resilient to flooding and extreme weather, and $2.76 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure programs.
Transitioning to Offshore Wind
New York has become a national leader in offshore wind, with five wind farms already selected and a mandate of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035. This will bring environmental and health benefits to our communities and will also create thousands of jobs and make NY a hub of offshore wind development. December saw some more big milestones for offshore wind:
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Sunrise Wind. This offshore wind project, located approximately 30 miles off Montauk, will generate 924 MW of energy and power nearly 600,000 Long Island homes via a cable connection to the Holbrook substation. There are a series of public hearings in January, we hope you can join and voice your support for wind.
BOEM hosted three public meetings on the DEIS for the Empire Wind project, which will power over a million homes throughout NYC and Nassau County. Thanks to all who joined and spoke up in favor of wind, and if you missed the opportunity to comment at the hearings, BOEM is still accepting comments through January 17th.
CCE and Equinor, the developer of the Empire Wind projects, co-hosted two well attended community meetings. The first one in Island Park in November, followed by Long Beach in December.
NYS announced plans to host public meetings on January 19th and 24th on the Beacon Wind project as part of their Article VII permitting process. The Beacon Wind project will be located approximately 60 miles off the coast of Montauk and will generate 1,230MW of energy, enough to power over 600,000 homes in NYC.
Protecting the South Shore Estuary Reserve
In December, we hosted the first South Shore Estuary Reserve (SSER) Legislative Breakfast in preparation for the 2023- 2024 NYS legislative session. The event brought together environmental experts and policy makers for presentations and discussions highlighting SSER program successes and to advance next steps needed to restore water quality in our bays, harbors, and estuary. This year, we will be in Albany fighting to increase funding for this crucial estuary, which spans from the Western Bays to Southampton along the south shore of Long Island.
Despite a dramatic reduction in a federal health advisory level for PFAS in drinking water announced in June by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Navy will still rely on the old EPA health advisory level to rule out intervention in areas near the former Naval Weapons Reserve Plant in Calverton, where PFAS and other chemicals have been detected in private residential wells.
Riverkeeper and allies call for Governor to sign stream protection bill passed by New York State Legislature
Albany, N.Y. – New York State Senator Pete Harckham and representatives from a number of important environmental groups held a press conference in the New York State Capitol Tuesday, December 6, urging Governor Hochul to enact vital legislation that protects streams and drinking water throughout the state.
Riverkeeper and its partners deliver message to Department of Health in support of stronger drinking water protections
Members of the public spoke up this month to urge New York State to protect drinking water through stronger, science-based limits on toxic PFAS chemicals. We would like to thank all of our members and supporters who joined Riverkeeper and our partners in submitting letters to the Department of Health through our action alert page.
LONG ISLAND, NY —The Long Island environmental advocacy group Citizens Campaign for the Environment has just released a new map that shows residents how much PFAS are in their drinking water.
More than 1 million Long islanders are ingesting at least trace levels of highly toxic chemicals every time they drink water from the faucet, according to new data from local water providers analyzed by a Farmingdale-based environmental group.
The project aims to deliver hydroelectricity from Hydro-Québec in Canada to New York City
The transmission line's construction will create $3.5 billion in economic benefits to New Yorkers
It is expected to create 1,250 megawatts of clean energy upon its 2026 completion
