“With Spring upon us and people spend more time outside, Earth Day is the perfect time to raise awareness about the issues affecting our environment,” said Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara (D-Rotterdam). “Protecting our natural resources will also help keep our children and families safe by making sure they have clean water to drink and the products they use do not contain dangerous chemicals.”

Santabarbara celebrated Earth Day by planting trees with groups of students from Barkley Elementary in Amsterdam, Jefferson Elementary in Rotterdam and Lincoln Elementary in Schenectady over the last week.

To cap off a week of celebration, the Assembly passed Earth Day legislation aimed at protecting the environment and keeping New York families healthy. The package of bills includes measures to:

• ensure that state funds and permits for projects such as water and sewage treatment plants include consideration of the effects that climate change and extreme weather events, including sea level rise, could have on the facilities (A.6558);
• establish a preference for the purchase of commodities, services and technologies by the state that minimize adverse impacts on public health and the environment (A.6046);
• specify which materials are required to be separated for recycling by waste haulers and prohibit the dumping of those materials in landfills or incinerators (A.3754);
• create a drug disposal program to encourage the proper disposal of unwanted prescription medications (A.5465);
• prevent exposure to dangerous chemicals and ensure the use of safer chemical alternatives in children’s products (A.6328);
• publish a list of “high local environmental impact zones” (A.3729); and
• establish a Permanent Environmental Justice Advisory Group within the DEC and an Environmental Justice Interagency Coordinating Council, and would require state agencies to adopt and abide by environmental justice policies (A.3569).