Riverkeeper and NYC Council Call on City to Control Waterfront Dumping

Riverkeeper and the New York City Council have called up the City to overhaul its lackluster approach to illegal waterfront dumping. In the absence of credible state and federal enforcement on the Harbor, the City is the last line of defense against environmental lawbreakers. But the City’s laws are outdated, there is little coordination amongst city agencies, fines are minimal, and there are too few investigators to enforce the law—seven between the Department of Small Business Services (2) and the Department of Environmental Protection (5).

On March 1, 2005, Riverkeeper testified at a joint hearing before the New York City Council Committee on Waterfronts, Committee on Small Business, and Committee on Sanitation & Solid Waste Management in support of 2005 Intro. No. 581. This bill calls for a plan to coordinate enforcement amongst the agencies responsible for waterfront dumping, improve environmental guidelines for waterfront businesses, initiate a waterfront task force, create a centralized contact for reporting illegal dumping, create a monitoring program for problem locations, and a public education program to increase awareness of the problems of dumping.

Earlier on November 29, 2004, Riverkeeper testified in front of the same committees in support of Intro. No. 500 2004. Introduced by Councilman David Yassky, this bill would raise penalty levels for violations of the City’s waterfront pollution law. The current fines for waterfront pollution are outdated at only $250 per violation. These penalties – levied only if a waterfront polluter is caught – do little to deter polluters. It is widely felt that fines can only act as a deterrent if they eliminate the economic advantage of polluting in the first place. Many polluters likely consider the current fines simply a minor cost of doing business. The new, higher fines would be far more likely to prevent waterfront pollution. Under Intro. No 500 2004, civil penalties for waterfront pollution violations would range from $1,000 to $5,000 for the first violation and $5,000 to $10,000 for the second violation, as well as double the cost of any cleanup undertaken by the government.

There has recently been an effort to revive the idea that was originally proposed in 2005 of increasing penalties for illegal dumping and increasing coordination in NYC between Small Business Services, Department of Environmental Protection, and Department of Sanitation.

These bills come at a critical time for New York City’s waters. The New York Harbor is undergoing an undeniable renaissance. Water quality has dramatically improved since the passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972. Extensive waterfront parks have been built or are planned. Beach facilities have been upgraded for the City’s 12 million annual beachgoers. Harborside land is being rezoned for residential housing. The Harbor is used in wider numbers by commuters, recreational boaters, swimmers, and anglers. And the Harbor factors prominently in the City’s 2012 Olympic plans. The City’s sewage management problem, combined with the badly polluted conditions of nearly all of the Harbor’s tidal tributaries, provides the primary checks on this renaissance.

A new waterways paradigm is needed on the Harbor. The City has to stop viewing the environmental enforcement on the Harbor as a cost upon agencies. It must start to view enforcement as a means of realizing the full value of clean waterways. Intro. No. 581 is not about creating a climate hostile to business. The point is to create a level playing field for the full range of harbor uses, including waterfront businesses, boaters, anglers, swimmers, nearby residents, and municipal events such as City’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The point is also to reward the vast majority of businesses that are complying with the law. Environmental lawbreakers gain an unfair competitive advantage over their responsible counterparts. They externalize their costs on society at the expense of dirty water. Currently, in the absence of strong laws and strong, coordinated enforcement, it pays to pollute New York City’s waterfront.