Summary
Section one of this bill adds a new Article 20 to the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), Natural Resources Conservation and Restoration, creates liability for natural resource damages, establishes a state Natural Resource Trustee and provides for the recovery of damages. Section two adds a new Title 45 to Article 71 of the ECL to provide for enforcement of Article 20 and establishes penalties for violations.  Section three of the bill amends the State Finance Law by establishing the New York Natural Resource Revolving Trust Fund to be used for the restoration of damaged natural resources. The bill further provides that the State Attorney General with independent enforcement authority to obtain liens against real property held by non-compliant responsible parties.

Explanation
This bill provides the state with statutory authority to bring an action in state court to recover monetary damages when the state’s natural resources have been damaged by a release of hazardous material. The state is currently able to recover such damages only in the case of petroleum spills as defined in the Navigation Law, or by bringing an action for damages under federal law, which is time consuming and provides a short statute of limitations.

It is far too often the case that responsible parties are required to cover only the cost of the cleanup of contamination and are not required to provide compensation for damage done to the state’s natural resources.  This bill corrects this situation by creating, within the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Office of Natural Resources Trustee which will act on behalf of the people of the state to investigate injury, destruction, or loss of natural resources, or the loss of use of such resources, determine the liability of responsible parties and assess and collect damages.

It should be noted that in order for this bill to reach its full potential it is imperative that the DEC be provided with adequate staff for the new Office of Natural Resources Trustee and sufficient other staff to perform the necessary natural resource damage assessments.

Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports this bill.