July 26, 2004
Environmental Advocates Calls on Governor Pataki to Increase Support for Environmental Protection

More than 700 Jobs Lost at DEC in a Decade

(Albany, N.Y.) – Environmental Advocates of New York, the state’s leading statewide environmental watchdog, today released Endangered Agency: How Staff Cuts and Privatization are Putting New York’s Environment at Risk, a report that focuses on the DEC, and its capacity to fulfill its mission with fewer staff and reduced budgets.

“The DEC has suffered dramatic staff cuts and reduced funding since the early 1990’s,” said Regulatory Watch Project Director Tim Sweeney. “The best estimates are that approximately 700 fewer people are working at the Department now as compared to 1994 staffing levels.” The staff reductions come as a result of the hiring freeze imposed on all state agencies by Governor George Pataki when he took office in 1995, and retirement incentives that have encouraged the departure of many of the agency’s most experienced scientists and engineers, Sweeney explained.

According to the report, state spending for personal services, when adjusted for inflation, has been dramatically cut. Comparing fiscal years 1994-1995 to 2003-2004, spending for staff for the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources has been reduced 13.6 percent and for staff at the Division of Air and Water Quality, the reduction is 7.3 percent. In fiscal year 2003-04 alone, 234 full time positions were eliminated at the DEC, decreasing the staff from 3,535 to 3,301, a 6.6 percent drop.

The report highlights a number of instances where staff shortages at DEC have resulted in problems for the environment. These include:

• Decreased staff in the water pollution permit program, resulting in permits being reissued without adequate review as required by the Clean Water Act;
• Facilities exceeding air pollution emissions standards;
• Failure to develop and implement Unit Management Plans for state-owned property in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve; and
• Dischargers of water and air pollution are not inspected routinely.

In the Division of Water, water pollution permits have gone without review, and in many cases permit conditions are being violated. According to information provided at the US EPA’s Environmental Compliance History Online website, of the 354 major water pollution permits currently in place, only 78 are listed as being in compliance, with 203 of the permitted facilities listed as having been in violation within the past two years, and 30 permits having a significant “non-compliance” status.

Similarly, in the Division of Air, 2,612 (37%) of the 7,008 permitted facilities are not in compliance with their permit conditions and 1831 are listed as being in violation.

In the Division of Lands and Forests, staffing shortages have resulted in only 23 Unit Management Plans being implemented for the 62 properties in the Forest Preserve requiring such a plan. This includes the highly acclaimed Whitney property in the Adirondacks that has been without a management plan since its acquisition in 1997.

Environmental Advocates has also obtained information that points to the DEC’s increased dependence on non-DEC employees performing department work, and the outsourcing of some DEC responsibilities. Some water pollution permits are being written by non-DEC employees. Endangered Agency also highlights attempts by the DEC to turn over the monitoring of landfills to landfill owners, and a proposal to allow the timber industry to conduct traditionally state-run timber sales.

Environmental Advocates urges Governor Pataki to restore DEC staffing to the levels necessary to fulfill its legal responsibilities by eliminating the hiring freeze at the department, increasing enforcement personnel in each of the department’s regional offices, hiring adequate inspection staff, and adhering to civil service requirements of competitive examination and hiring.

“Recognizing that these measures require funding sources, New York should utilize the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ to provide funding to the DEC,” Sweeney said. “This would require polluters to pay for the privilege of polluting public resources and cover the state’s costs for administering that privilege.” For example, increasing the cost of water pollution permits and the per-ton emissions charge on all air pollution emitting facilities would generate millions of dollars of additional income, Sweeney explained.

“Environmental Advocates is very concerned that decreased staffing and funding will result in significant harm to New York’s environment,” said EANY Executive Director Robert Moore. “We urge the administration to take the necessary steps to bring the DEC staff and funding back to levels that will enable the department to fulfill its mission to protect the state’s environment and public health.”

Copies of the report are available at: www.eany.org/reports.