June 20, 2011New York Water Bills Pass UnanimouslyOn June 16th, the NYS Senate became the second house of the NYS legislature to pass the pending water withdrawal permitting legislation, A5318A/S3798. The senate vote was 62-0. The assembly had passed the legislation on May 2nd with a vote of 101-0. Although the assembly and senate have taken divergent views on a number of bills before the legislature this year, it is notable that they were united in unanimous support of this legislation. The bills await the governor's signature, which is expected. The legislation provides that the new permitting requirements it contains do not become applicable until the department promulgates new regulations implementing the legislation. The legislation expands the permitting requirements for public drinking water supplies and certain other limited purposes contained in §§15-1501 et seq. of Title 5 of Article 15 of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) to require the DEC to issue water withdrawal permit for withdrawals of 100,000 gallons or more per day by any user for any purpose from any of the state's waters, except that agricultural users are exempt from the permit requirements. The legislation was actively supported by the Business Council, the Farm Bureau and a number of major environmental groups. It was opposed by some grassroots environmental groups out of concerns that the legislation did not address water withdrawals for use in gas drilling. For our previous post on the legislation, click here and here. Posted by Rachel Treichler at 06/20/11 10:45 PM
Copyright 2021, Rachel Treichler
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