Beyond Fracking: Lawmakers target unsafe products, climate change, black market for ivory

What most riles environmentalists in New York is hydrofracking—but with the controversial method of drilling for natural gas still on hold, lawmakers are looking beyond whether the technique should be legal and turning their attention to other issues. 

Even state Sen. Tony Avella, an outspoken opponent of hydrofracking, has shifted his focus from an outright ban to the more limited step of preventing the shipment of fracking waste into New York from other states that have allowed drilling. 

“Obviously I’m still supportive of a ban, but getting the ban legislation passed is very difficult,” Avella told City & State. “But one of the things we should not be doing is taking the fracking waste from Pennsylvania into our state and using it as a de-icer, using it on the asphalt and the roads, and taking it to the landfills. Why should we be taking this toxic stuff and burying it in landfills throughout New York?” 

Avella’s legislation to ban hydrofracking waste from being shipped into New York is one of a handful of key bills that are at the top of Albany’s environmental policy agenda in the last few weeks of this year’s session. Another major focus this year is harmful or toxic materials, such as mercury, cadmium and various chemicals, especially in children’s products. Other high-priority proposed legislation deals with protecting endangered species or addressing climate change. 

On the product safety front—a top priority in the Senate—one bill would prohibit the sale of jewelry, toys or other items containing cadmium. Another would ban cosmetic products containing small plastic microbeads, which have been found to be harmful to the environment. The Child Safe Products Act, which is sponsored by state Sen. Phil Boyle and Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, would enact a broader ban on dangerous chemicals in children’s toys, replacing the current approach of banning specific chemicals. 

“It’s not my bill, but I’ve made that a priority,” Avella, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, said of the Child Safe Products Act. “I think it’s extremely important that we pass that this session. The most important ones are the Child Product Safety Act and the ban on importing the hydrofracking wastewater into New York State. The cadmium ban is also important, but there’s a competing bill from Grisanti that we have to work out.” 

State Sen. Mark Grisanti, who chairs the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, said he was optimistic that several of the bills would pass this year, including the microbeads legislation. 

In the Democrat-controlled Assembly, a major focus continues to be climate change. Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, the longtime chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, said that one of his top priorities is a climate resiliency bill co-sponsored by state Sen. Diane Savino. The bill would require projected sea level rise and changing weather patterns to be taken into account at the state and local level. 

“That’s a very significant bill in terms of planning for the future and not repeating the mistakes we have seen with Sandy and the upstate flooding and the other natural disasters where our infrastructure was allowed to be built in places or in ways that it really should not have been,” Sweeney said. “And when we build or rebuild in the future, we have to be smarter about the way that we do things and plan ahead.” 

The legislation could also end up saving millions of dollars, Sweeney said. He cited the example of a sewage plant built below grade in Nassau County that is “now a billion-dollar problem to fix as a result of Sandy.” 

“That can’t happen in the future,” he said. “We have to be smarter about our limited financial resources and the way that we issue permits and fund projects.” 

Sweeney’s other top priorities include improving Long Island’s water quality and cracking down on the illegal ivory trade, a key issue in both houses. The United States is second only to China in the amount of illegal ivory shipped here, Sweeney said, and New York is the main port of entry. In addition to concerns about the dwindling elephant population, the ivory trade has also been linked to terrorist organizations, which profit from ivory sales. 

Lawmakers in both parties said that the $9 million increase in the Environmental Protection Fund in this year’s state budget was a positive step, although several said they had hoped to add even more funding. Sweeney also applauded this year’s $1 million appropriation for children’s environmental health centers statewide. 

“Once upon a time, years ago, we used to fund them. That stopped,” Sweeney explained. “I think it’s very significant that we do it again, because we recognize more and more as time goes by the environmental issues in children’s products.”