Bills protect fragile drinking water sources, reduce greenhouse gases, expand food donations
Albany, NY – New York State Senate Pete Harckham announced today that two of his bills passed in the Senate’s environmental “Earth Day” legislation package. One bill protects Class C streams and waterways, and another bill expands food scraps recycling to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and help alleviate food insecurity in communities statewide.
“To continue serving as responsible stewards of our environment we must look for new ways to approach hard-to-solve problems that effectively safeguard our natural resources,” said Harckham. “The Streams Protection bill commits us to ensuring the quality of our drinking water and still permits residents to enjoy non-contact activities on certain waterways; and the Food Donation bill is good for the environment and will help feed many residents—a real win-win for us statewide in both the short- and long-term.”
Harckham added that Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and his Senate colleagues “deserve a lot of credit for bringing this legislative package forward and introducing important bills.” In total, the Senate passed a dozen bills in its “Earth Day” legislative package.
The Streams Protection bill (S.1725A), which also was in the Senate’s One-House Budget Resolution, ensures proper access to waterways that are used for drinking water, fishing and recreation by adding Class C streams to those waterways included in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Protection of Waters Regulatory Program.
This legislation grew out of the Trump administration’s roll back of federal clean water protections in January 2020, which were in place since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972. The roll back ended up affecting about 50% of the streams statewide.
In New York, however, Class AA and A streams (drinking water sources), Class B streams (swimming and contact recreation) and Class T and TS streams (supporting trout populations and trout spawning) have been afforded the extra, longstanding DEC protection. Harckham’s legislation aims to protect Class C streams (supporting fisheries and non-contact recreation) similarly.
The Streams Protection bill was introduced in last year’s Senate session and has been amended to accommodate Soil and Water Conservation Districts that currently oversee a large majority of Class C streams. These districts do not need to apply for permits through the DEC but still must maintain the same standards that are required in the permits.
More than 11.2 million New Yorkers are dependent on public water systems that rely on small streams to supply clean drinking water. In addition, a recent DEC Angler Survey showed that New York State freshwater sport fisheries generate more than $2 billion a year and support nearly 11,000 jobs statewide, providing undeniable economic proof of why it is vitally important for New York State to preserve and protect its Class C waterways.
The newly passed bill, when signed into law, will extend DEC protections to over 40,000 miles of Class C streams across New York, including streams in both the Upper Hudson River and Lower Hudson River basins. These protections prevent course modification, bank disturbance and infilling of all Class C headwater streams.
“Protecting New York’s water is one of the most important responsibilities of our elected officials,” said Jeremy Cherson, senior manager of government affairs at Riverkeeper. “Senator Harckham’s legislation protects vulnerable streams and will help ensure that our waterways remain healthy.”
Cherson added, “In practice, the legislation would provide much-needed oversight to ensure streams are adequately protected from disturbance and destruction that can degrade their water quality and sensitive wildlife, including many threatened and endangered species. Communities such as Peekskill, Watervliet, and others across New York State rely on small streams for their drinking water. These new protections passed in the Senate Earth Day package will help ensure New Yorkers can safely rely on clean water for years to come.”
Harckham’s Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Program bill (S.5331) essentially requires growing participation in food donation programs by various grocery stores, restaurants and other food scraps generators at different levels of food waste production in upcoming years. Food waste generators averaging two tons or more of food per week between the bill’s enactment and Dec. 31, 2023 are required to join the program. Next are food waste generators averaging one ton or more of food per week between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2025, then one half ton or more of food per week starting Jan. 1, 2026 and thereafter.
It should be noted that the bill maintains a flexibility for small businesses and waste generators to file waivers to be exempted for reasoning related to a lack of transportation and cost burdens.
Recent news investigations have highlighted how food production and food waste are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Each step of food production, from growing, harvesting, processing and packaging to transportation and storage, releases harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
On average, Americans waste about 35-40% of the food that is produced nationwide. This results in food production being to blame for almost 25-33% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide—and when that food is wasted, the emissions that brought it forth are too. Food scraps that are often perfectly safe to eat unfortunately end up being thrown out, where they sit in landfills to decompose and release even more methane.
“Federated Conservationists of Westchester County and our member organizations wholeheartedly support Senator Harckham’s food scraps bill, and we applaud the bill’s many provisions aimed at equitably addressing waste reduction issues and funding projects that will move our County forward toward a healthier, more equitable and sustainable future,” said Tracy Stora, program director of Federated Conservationists of Westchester County (FCWC). “Even if fossil fuel emissions were immediately halted, current trends in food systems would prevent the achievement of the 1.5°C target and threaten reaching the 2°C target. Landfills are responsible for a large amount of methane emissions, largely due to anaerobic decomposition of food wastes. FCWC organizations support evidence-based strategies, research and education, in addition to incentives to reduce methane emissions in the agriculture and food sector. Senator Harckham’s bill is a strong step in the right direction.”
Pete Harckham represents the 40th Senate District, which includes the towns of Carmel, Kent, Patterson and Southeast, and the village of Brewster in Putnam County; the town of Stony Point in Rockland County; and the city of Peekskill, the towns of Bedford, Cortlandt, Lewisboro, New Castle, North Salem, Somers and Yorktown, the towns/villages of Mount Kisco and Ossining, and the villages of Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan and Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County.