Prohibits the application of pesticides to certain local freshwater wetlands for local governments that have implemented a freshwater wetlands protection law; provides that any local law or ordinance adopted pursuant to this section shall take effect on the first day of January after it shall have been adopted.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5983--A
Cal. No. 520
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 4, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. HARCKHAM, MAY -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conser-
vation -- reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and
second report, ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered
reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prohibiting the application of pesticides to certain local freshwater
wetlands
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a
2 new section 24-0513 to read as follows:
3 § 24-0513. Local freshwater wetlands pesticide prohibition.
4 1. A local government that has implemented a freshwater wetlands
5 protection law or ordinance in accordance with section 24-0501 of this
6 title may adopt a local law or ordinance to prohibit the application of
7 pesticides to wetlands it regulates; provided, however, that any such
8 law or ordinance shall not prohibit pesticide applications for the
9 control of invasive species identified pursuant to title 17 of article 9
10 of this chapter, pests of significant public health importance, noxious
11 weeds designated by the department as injurious to ecosystem health, or
12 for the protection of critical native plant species.
13 2. (a) The provisions of this section shall apply only to those
14 wetlands which are hydrologically connected to any reservoir, reservoir
15 stem, class A waterway or other source of public water supply.
16 (b) The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit
17 or limit the use or application of pesticides used in farm operations as
18 defined in section three hundred one of the agriculture and markets law.
19 3. Any local law or ordinance adopted pursuant to this section shall
20 take effect on the first day of January after it shall have been
21 adopted.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
23 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10703-02-5
