October 24, 2005

Environmental Advocates of New York Cites Continued Staff Shortages at the DEC as a Threat to Public Safety
Key Programs Suffer the Impact of State Hiring Freeze and Retirements

(Albany, NY) – Environmental Advocates of New York, the leading statewide government watchdog, today released Endangered Agency II: Are Staff Cuts at the DEC Threatening Your Safety? The report is a follow-up to last year’s Endangered Agency which exposed for the first time how staffing cuts at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have affected the agency’s ability to protect New York’s environment and human health.

In this year’s report Environmental Advocates looks at many programs within DEC that do not typically receive public scrutiny including the Dam Safety Unit, Wildlife Pathology Unit and Forest Rangers Service. Additionally, the performance of DEC’s air and water pollution programs, enforcement efforts and rulemaking are addressed.

Endangered Agency II reveals that the DEC is in worse condition than we reported last year. “We are now aware that the agency is currently operating with over 800 fewer employees when compared to the mid 1990s,” said Regulatory Watch Program Director Tim Sweeney.

“The staff shortages are a result of a hiring freeze placed on all state agencies by Governor Pataki immediately upon taking office, and generous retirement incentives that have prompted many of the DEC’s most experienced personnel to leave the agency,” Sweeney explained. “The DEC is not even operating at the recommended fill level (number of employees) contained in last year’s state budget.”

“The loss of scientists, engineers and enforcement officials at DEC has impacted the agency’s ability to keep our families safe and to protect the state’s natural resources,” said Sweeney.

With only four full-time employees, the DEC’s Dam Safety Unit is responsible for the inspection of more than 5,500 dams statewide, including 383 high hazard dams. Furthermore, according to Association of State Dam Safety Officials there are 54 state-determined deficient dams in New York State. Over the last decade the Dam Safety Unit has only been able to inspect between 1.4 percent and 11.2 percent of dams per year, and more than 2,700 dams have not been inspected in over ten years. “The recent events involving a dam failure in upstate New York and levee breaches along the Gulf Coast are vivid examples of the catastrophic damage that occurs when towns or cities are inundated,” Sweeney said. “The need for a fully-staffed DEC Dam Safety Unit cannot be overemphasized.”

Similarly, staff shortages are adversely impacting the DEC’s Wildlife Pathology Unit. The unit is charged with diagnosing, monitoring and controlling wildlife illnesses and diseases that can impact human health including West Nile Virus, Chronic Wasting Disease, Lyme disease and rabies. The Wildlife Pathology Unit, however, has just five full-time employees and doesn’t have the funds to purchase necessary laboratory testing supplies. According to the state’s Wildlife Pathologist, Ward Stone, “there’s not enough staff to begin to do what we have to do.”

The state’s Forest Ranger Service, while not as severely impacted by staff shortages, has seen its role change over the past several years in response to the need to augment the DEC’s law enforcement unit. The changing role of the Forest Ranger Service has resulted in a decline in stewardship activities in the state forest preserve, and an increase in the Rangers serving as an extension of the Environmental Conservation Officer force. This change has had a significant negative impact on morale in the ranks of the Rangers.

Environmental Advocates also researched the DEC’s Division of Water and its water pollution permitting program. In the early 1990’s, as a result of staffing shortages, the DEC established a goal of reviewing only 10 percent of water pollution permits each year. Presently, more than 90 percent of the permits are administratively renewed without any substantive review. Furthermore, despite the stated goal of reviewing ten percent, over the last six years the DEC has only been able to review approximately 5 percent per year. The current program in place at the DEC is inadequate to protect the state’s waters, and may not be in compliance with the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.

Environmental Advocates remains concerned that staff shortages at the DEC are threatening not only the environment, but also the safety of all New Yorkers. We are again calling on the Pataki administration and the Legislature to take all necessary steps to begin the rebuilding process at the DEC. But, for now the DEC remains an endangered agency.

The full Endangered Agency II report is available at www.eany.org/reports.