Establishes a moratorium on the issuance of permits for the drilling of wells and prohibits drilling within ten miles of the New York city water supply infrastructure.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1322--C
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 7, 2009
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRENNAN, COLTON, HYER-SPENCER, SKARTADOS, LIFTON
-- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. GOTTFRIED, MILLMAN, PHEFFER, ROSEN-
THAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Environmental
Conservation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted
as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the
Committee on Environmental Conservation in accordance with Assembly
Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- again
reported from said committee with amendments, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to envi-
ronmental protection related to the drilling of oil and gas wells, and
providing for the repeal of certain provisions upon expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 23-0501 of the environmental
2 conservation law is renumbered subdivision 5 and two new subdivisions 3
3 and 4 are added to read as follows:
4 3. Commencing with the effective date of this subdivision, there shall
5 be a moratorium on the issuance of permits for the drilling of new
6 wells.
7 4. (a) No permit to drill an oil or gas well using hydraulic fractur-
8 ing shall be issued for the drilling of any oil or gas well within ten
9 miles of:
10 (i) the New York city water supply infrastructure;
11 (ii) the New York city watershed; or
12 (iii) the area around and including any water system that has
13 received, at any point in time, a filtration avoidance determination
14 from the United States Environmental Protection Agency;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00770-14-0
A. 1322--C 2
1 (b) No permit to drill an oil or gas well using hydraulic fracturing
2 shall be issued for the drilling of any oil or gas well within an appro-
3 priate distance, to be determined by rules and regulations of the
4 department, of:
5 (i) any area overlying a sole source aquifer;
6 (ii) any other area identified by the department as necessary for the
7 protection of drinking water resources;
8 (iii) any area identified as a critical habitat for a threatened or
9 endangered species under section four of the federal Endangered Species
10 Act (42 U.S.C. § 1533) or any area identified as a "natural heritage
11 area" under section 11-0539 of this chapter;
12 (iv) any area identified by the department as a bird conservation area
13 or any other critical bird habitat for the protection of migratory or
14 non-migratory birds;
15 (v) any floodplains; or
16 (vi) all areas within any New York state park, forest preserve, state
17 forest, wildlife refuge, wildlife management area, or wilderness area.
18 (c) The department shall, upon application by any chief executive or
19 legislative body of a municipality, in a manner and form to be deter-
20 mined by the department, study the need for a ban on such permits in
21 such municipality and report the findings of such study to such munici-
22 pality. As the department deems appropriate, it may perform a single
23 study and report for more than one municipality.
24 (d) For purposes of this subdivision:
25 (i) "New York city water supply infrastructure" shall mean facilities,
26 equipment, sites, buildings, pipes, pumps, tanks and any other struc-
27 tures used for the supply, control, treatment, distribution, and trans-
28 port of drinking water for the city of New York;
29 (ii) "New York city watershed" shall mean the entire drainage area
30 contributing water to the city of New York water supply; and
31 (iii) "hydraulic fracturing" shall mean fracturing of rock by man-made
32 fracturing techniques for the purpose of stimulating natural gas or oil
33 well production.
34 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the
35 provisions of subdivision 3 of section 23-0501 of the environmental
36 conservation law, as added by section one of this act, shall expire and
37 be deemed repealed two years after such date; and provided further, that
38 the provisions of subdivision 4 of section 23-0501 of the environmental
39 conservation law, as added by section one of this act, shall apply to
40 any application not yet approved by the department of environmental
41 conservation on such effective date.
