WPCNR ENVIRONMENTALIST. From Emmett Pepper. (Edited) February 23, 2006: Conservation groups cheered last week as the New York State Assembly passed, by an overwhelming bi-partisan vote, legislation – the Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act (A.2048) – to expand protection of New York’s wetlands. The Assembly action proposes to protect wetlands under New York State law that are now unprotected as a result of rollbacks at the federal level. (1) Environmental groups and citizens statewide overwhelmingly support passage of the Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act and call on the Senate to pass S.2081 in 2006.

WPCNR learned by following and exposing  the White Plains Silver Lake pollution coverup last August by Harrison and White Plains officials, that neither the Department of Environmental Conservation nor the Department of Health (in Westchester County) do not monitor tributaries on a coordinated regular schedule. The Mamaroneck River outletting from Silver Lake, is  shown here as it looked in mid September, 2005, at the height of the raw sewage pollution dumped into the Lake July 19. The tributary, one of hundreds is not monitored on a conscientious basis, only according to a lax schedule prepared by the state, meaning that on-going dumping into tributaries can go long periods of time, polluting wetlands without being detected. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

“Friends of the Bay applauds the New York State Assembly for their prompt consideration and passage of this significant environmental legislation,” said Friends of the Bay Executive Director Kyle Rabin. “Now the Senate must take action. As an organization on Long Island, we know how important wetlands are to protecting our drinking water and cleaning up the polluted runoff that threatens our bays and estuaries.”

Under current state law, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) can only regulate development and other activities that threaten wetlands when the wetlands are included on New York’s Freshwater Wetlands Maps.

New York law directs DEC to map only those wetlands that are 12.4 acres and larger, or that are determined to be of “unusual local importance.” In practice, very few wetlands of “unusual local importance” have been included on the maps. By comparing the state maps with maps produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Sierra Club determined that the USFWS shows 281,216 wetlands in New York, while DEC reports that it regulates 15,625 wetlands. (2) This leaves hundreds of thousands of wetlands in the State subject to federal protection alone. On this score, federal records demonstrate that, since the rollback began in 2001, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), the primary federal agency that regulates wetlands, has not applied federal protections to hundreds of New York State’s wetlands. Currently DEC gets no warning when ACOE determines that a wetland is not subject to federal regulation.

“New York clearly cannot rely on ACOE to protect important smaller wetlands,” said Leila Goldmark, Staff Attorney for Riverkeeper, Inc. “The New York State Attorney General’s Office recently reviewed all wetland permit determinations available from 2001-2004. The AG’s Office has stated that fully 45 % (562) of the applications received were found to be non-jurisdictional by ACOE. Of those, only one application was found that qualified for regulation under state law. All of those wetlands went unregulated and were destroyed.”

Last year, the Assembly passed A.2048 and the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee released S.2081 with a nearly unanimous 11 to 1 recommendation, but the Senate leadership refused to allow the measure to go to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

“Every year we delay results in additional wetlands going under buildings, malls and parking lots, resulting in increased non-point source pollution, increased flooding and poorer habitat,” said Don Riepe, Director of the NE Chapter of the American Littoral Society. “It’s time for the Senate to end the delay and stand with the Assembly and Governor in taking responsibility for protecting our most vital resource.”

Wetlands perform important functions in natural drainage systems. By capturing and holding water runoff from rain-storms and snow melt, they filter out contaminants and reduce potential for flooding. Water held in wetlands is then released slowly to streams, rivers and groundwater. In this way, wetlands purify the surface waters that many public water supplies rely on as a source of drinking water and provide steady flows of the cool clean water that fish and other aquatic animals rely on. Due to the critical nature of these functions, every other northeastern state regulates activities that threaten wetlands much more comprehensively than New York State’s current law allows. (3)

“New York has a long tradition of leadership on environmental issues that is even more critical today given that the federal government has abandoned any pretense of protecting the nation’s environment for all Americans,” said Brad Sewell, Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “On wetlands, New York is far from the leader, and we ask that the state catch up – our smallest wetlands are frequently our most valuable, and they are being destroyed as we speak.”

"The public understands and appreciates the value of protecting New York's remaining wetlands," stated Dereth Glance, program director with Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE). "We continue to find overwelming public support for urgent legislative action--this session--to protect New York's vulnerable wetlands.”

"Fish and many wildlife and waterfowl live in wetlands, and their protection is critical," stated Wally John, Legislative Vice-President, New York State Conservation Council.

Governor Pataki’s budget this year included, in addition to measures intended to address this loss of federal wetlands protection, funding for much needed staff in the state wetland protection program run by DEC.

“We appreciate Governor Pataki’s proposal to increase DEC staff dedicated to wetland protection and to expand the reach of New York’s wetland protection program. The Assembly has taken the first step in moving a regulatory proposal. We call on the Senate to now follow their lead. It is critical that both members of the Senate and members of the Assembly insist that expanded wetland protection measures be achieved in the budget process for fiscal year 2006/2007 and in passage of the Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act,” said John Stouffer, Legislative Director for Sierra Club – Atlantic Chapter.