by Lisa Rainwater, PhD
Policy Director

Clean Water for New York State

Clean water is a basic human right.

Our communities want and deserve clean water for drinking, fishing, and swimming; clean air to breathe; and natural areas for recreation and aesthetic purposes.

The Hudson River and its watershed and the watersheds that provide New York City its drinking water remain under intense pressure from increased development, stormwater runoff, and point source pollution. These pressures threaten the ecological integrity of the Hudson River, diminish the public’s ability to swim, fish, and recreate safely, and degrade the drinking water supply for nearly 9 million people. In addition to ongoing development pressures, our water is threatened by an ever-increasing reduction in federal funding needed to maintain our aging clean water infrastructure.

Clean water infrastructure funding drops to all-time low.

Over several decades, the level of federal funding for clean water infrastructure has dropped dramatically (from 78 percent in 1978 to 3 percent in 2007). Clean water and wastewater infrastructure is of vital importance to our nation’s economic prosperity, public health, and environmental integrity. As the federal monies continue to dry up, states and local municipalities are left struggling to cover mounting costs needed to upgrade and improve aging infrastructure.

Currently, we have a national funding gap of approximately $22 billion a year. This ongoing tightening of federally-funded water infrastructure programs has severely impacted New York State’s water quality. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 37 percent of New York’s river miles and 77 percent of the State’s lakes are impaired, while 41 percent of our waters are unfishable for food consumption.

New York’s current and projected water needs far outpace its ability to fund water infrastructure projects. New York will have only 55% of 2007’s resources available for 2008 spending.

Raw sewage discharges are an environmental and public health crisis.

Communities up and down the Hudson Valley discharge raw sewage into the Hudson River during heavy rains due to antiquated systems. Combined sewer systems overflows (CSOs), which result from excessive flows of water and sewage into combined sewer and stormwater systems, continue to pollute our New York waterways. New York City alone discharges more than 27 billion gallons of untreated stormwater and sewage into New York Harbor annually.

CSOs result in beach closures (or illness to those exposed to the bacteria), contamination of fish and shellfish, reduced ability of the ecosystem to support aquatic life, and damage to the aesthetic and recreational qualities of the River and limiting economic vitality for regions reliant upon tourism.

Understaffing at State agencies exacerbates our pollution problem.

Raw sewage is not the only contaminant reaching New York’s water bodies. In New York, more than 8,000 facilities cumulatively discharge tens of billions of gallons of municipal and industrial wastes into the State’s waterways on a daily basis. Yet years of reduced staffing at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has limited the agency’s ability to enforce the law. Ninety percent of these permits are not receiving the requisite technical scrutiny required under the Clean Water Act – allowing pollution to discharge – unchecked – into New York’s waterways. New York State needs to adequately staff the Department of Environmental Conservation in order to ensure that the tenets of the Clean Water Act are being upheld.

Smart Growth practices protect our drinking water supply and support local economies.

Unchecked – sprawling – development has put the drinking water supply for 9 million New Yorkers in jeopardy. Large-scale development projects are popping up across the watershed, thereby decreasing water quality. By replacing natural soils with paved surfaces, the landscape loses its ability to purify stormwater naturally.

Smart Growth planning decreases impervious surfaces, traffic, air and noise pollution, as well as infrastructure costs. New infrastructure in sprawling areas, including new roads, water lines, and sewer lines, along with expenditures for new schools and increased police and fire protection cost taxpayers millions of dollars. When Smart Growth principles are adopted by a community, water quality is protected, open space is preserved, local economies thrive, and biodiversity is maintained.

New York State’s wetlands are in jeopardy.

Healthy, functioning wetlands are of vital importance to the health of New York’s water supply and natural environment. Healthy, functioning wetlands serve as buffers during storms and help absorb flood waters. Wetlands also serve to protect homeowners throughout the State from an estimated one billion dollars worth of property damage annually.

Currently, New York’s Freshwater Wetlands Law only protects freshwater wetlands that are 12.4 acres or larger, or those that have been designated by the DEC as being of “unusual, local importance.” Wetlands smaller than 12.4 acres used to be protected under federal law. But today, they are no longer guaranteed such protections due to recent federal rollbacks to the Clean Water Act. These rollbacks have jeopardized the environmental protections originally set forth by Congress under the Clean Water Act of 1972.


The fine for polluting New Yorkers’ drinking water costs just about as much as violating a New York City parking code.

Today, the penalty for polluting the public drinking water supply in violation of the New York State Watershed Rules and Regulations is $200. This is the same penalty imposed on polluters in 1909. Compared with other fines imposed on New Yorkers for breaking the law, this is a paltry sum of money. Although the New York State legislature recently adopted legislation increasing fines for State Sanitary Code violations, the bill does not address penalties for Watershed Rules and Regulations whatsoever. New York State needs to update its Watershed enforcement code to create a disincentive for polluting our drinking water supply. A $200 fine imposed on a person who puts at risk the health and safety of over 9 million New Yorkers is not a deterrent. Effective pollution enforcement requires updated penalties that use the full force of our state and federal laws.

Clean water solutions are attainable.

The current funding mechanisms to protect our drinking water supplies and water bodies are failing Americans in cities and towns across the country.
The United States government needs to establish a Clean Water National Trust Fund in order to ensure a secured, permanently funded revenue source for water infrastructure needs.

While the establishment of a Clean Water National Trust Fund is the only viable, long-term solution to fix our country’s failing clean water infrastructure, immediate clean water initiatives can be enacted to increase and secure federal monies to improve our clean water infrastructure. While they by no means solve the myriad crises facing local communities across the country, interim solutions to an ever-growing crisis need to be enacted now.

Safe, Clean Energy for New York State

Power plants kill fish in staggering numbers. Every year, they withdraw more than 1.2 trillion gallons from the Hudson River alone. That’s 5 billion gallons of biologically rich tidal River water per day during times of peak use. Power plants kill most of the aquatic life when withdrawing this massive volume, many billions of organisms each year, including a sizable portion of the Hudson's newly spawned fish populations. The massive water withdrawals and resulting fish mortality have been one of the Hudson River’s most contentious and important battles for almost 30 years.

There are myriad alternatives to antiquated, large-scale, dirty forms of energy production. At this juncture, it entails the quest for (and commitment to) safe, reliable, affordable energy sources. A recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on alternative energy sources to the Indian Point nuclear power plant made it quite clear that while it is technologically possible to replace the nuclear plant’s power, political and regulatory hurdles have prevented and continue to prevent any movement toward ridding the New York metropolitan region of this safety and security risk. But the NAS panel drew much wider conclusions than whether or not Indian Point can be replaced. The report also concluded that in order to ensure energy reliability for the entire state in the coming decades, Albany needs to act quickly and effectively.

A sound energy plan that seeks to phase out large, polluting power plants in the coming decades will go a long way in jumpstarting the renewable energy sector and ensuring that future generations won’t be plagued with polluted air and water, decimated fish populations, and additional tons of deadly radioactive waste sitting on the banks of the Hudson River.

New York deserves a new, clean power plant siting bill.

The Executive Office and the New York State Legislature need to pass a new Article X bill that focuses on a streamlined siting process for clean energy projects as a way to meet New York’s growing energy needs while minimizing air pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions, and water withdrawals, which kill large numbers of fish and other aquatic organisms. The Article X bill must also ensure that protections are in place to avoid disproportionate siting and permitting of power generating facilities in low-income communities and communities of color, many of which are already overburdened with power plants and other polluting facilities.

New York businesses should reap the benefits of solar technologies.

New York is one of only two states in the country that does not have a net metering law allowing business and commercial property owners to sell unused power back to the electrical utility for a profit.

Expansion of the current Net Metering program should increase the eligibility of solar PV systems to 25kW for residential and 2 megawatts for commercial customers. It also should increase the overall net metering limits to allow for maximum generation.

New Yorkers can make wise energy decisions with Smart Metering technologies.

New York State should encourage energy conservation and efficiency by allowing users to track their energy use more effectively. Smart Metering technologies that allow for tracking energy supply and demand are on the market and slowly becoming available through pilot programs. With Smart Meters, customers are able to make wise energy decisions, lessen demands on the grid during peak times of day, and potentially save money while doing it.

Indian Point is a nuclear facility that deserves special attention.

Due to the plant's vulnerability to terrorism, a laundry list of safety problems, the storage of 1500 tons of radioactive waste onsite, and the lack of a workable evacuation plan, Riverkeeper has been working toward the permanent shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

Entergy – owner/operator of Indian Point – is seeking a twenty-year license extension on the plant’s current operating licenses that expire in 2013 and 2015. The federal relicensing process, overseen by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is flawed on many levels: unlike siting requirements for a new nuclear power plant, old plants are not required to review population density around the plant, emergency planning, high-level radioactive waste, and risks of a terrorist attack. For Indian Point, these issues remain a high level of concern for those living near the plant, emergency responders, and security experts.

As long as Indian Point continues to operate on the banks of the Hudson River in the midst of 20 million people, the public deserves an impartial assessment of vital operating systems at the plant and the emergency evacuation plans for those living near the nuclear facility. An Independent Safety Assessment, coordinated by federal and state agencies and overseen by a citizen advisory panel is the only truly independent assessment able to produce impartial results.

The need for increased security at New York’s nuclear power plants is indicative of ongoing terrorist threats to our nation and the risks nuclear plants pose on the public-at-large. As long as these plants operate in New York, the owners/operators – not New York taxpayers – should cover the costs of defending these high-risk facilities.


A Protected Environment for New York State

Riverkeeper is proud to be a coalition partner in many policy and legislative endeavors spearheaded by our sister environmental organizations in New York State. We stand united in our support of protected, permanent, and increased funding for the Environmental Protection Fund, an expansion of the current bottle deposit law to include non-carbonated beverages, a state-wide bill to preserve community character, and legislation to finance sustainable stormwater management practices.


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