BILL NUMBER: S6299A

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the
community air monitoring program

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To mandate that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
produce an addendum to their community air monitoring study on the role
that the Department's permitting of air facilities plays in contributing
to direct and indirect sources of air pollution

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

  Section one of the bill adds a new subdivision five to section 75-0115
of  the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) to provide that DEC include
an addendum to their  CLCPA-mandated  community  air  monitoring  study,
which is due in June 2024, within one year of the date of the bill sign-
ing.  The  addendum  shall  include  an examination of the role that DEC
              

plays in contributing to  air  pollution  in  disadvantaged  communities
through their permitting of warehouses such as Title V facilities.

This  section  also  adds  a new subdivision 6 to provide that DEC shall
release a public listing and map of all last mile  warehouses  receiving
air  permits  and certifications in conjunction with the addendum to the
study described in subdivision five.

  Section three sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

  Section 75-0115 in Article 75 of the Environmental  Conservation  Law,
established  by landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
(CLCPA) of 2019, mandated that NYS DEC undergo a community air  monitor-
ing program to study and report on strategies to reduce air pollution in
disadvantaged  communities  "affected  by  a  high  cumulative  exposure
burden" (ECL § 75-0115(3)). As of this writing, the study has  consisted
of  "a  mobile  monitoring  fleet  of air sensor-equipped, low-emissions
vehicles...driven on public roads...at least 20 times  across  different
seasons,  different  days of the week, and different times of the day...
to collect block-level air  pollution  data  to  help  identify  sources
contributing to disproportionate air pollution burdens and develop stra-
tegies  to  reduce  air  pollution  within  these communities, including
greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate  change"  according  to
the Department. After collecting data on a long list of pollutants which
includes  fine  particulate matter, black carbon, nitric oxide, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile  organic  compounds,  ozone,  ethane,
methane,  carbon  dioxide,  and  other  greenhouse  gases,  DEC  will be
required to publish a report on potential pollutant reduction strategies
in June 2024.

Missing from this section of ECL, however, is the requirement for DEC to
look internally at the role that the Department plays in contributing to
air pollution in overburdened communities through its  generous  permit-
ting  of air facilities. DEC's Division of Air Resources (DAR) currently
regulates a range of commercial  and  industrial  facilities  that  both
directly  pollute,  such as by burning fuel or releasing airborne chemi-
cals from facility processes or operations, and indirectly attract large
sources of pollution such as truck traffic by the nature of their  oper-
ations. DAR's permitting categories range from Air Title V, reserved for
the  largest  facilities  considered  to be "major sources" of pollution
subject to Title V of the Federal  Clean  Act,  to  Air  State  Facility
Permits,  applying  to  medium-sized commercial or industrial sites that
may have agreed to emission  capping,  to  Air  Facility  Registrations,
required for smaller operations like dry cleaners or auto body shops. Up
until  the  passage  of  the  CLCPA,  however, DEC was never required to
consider the role that any of  these  facilities  played  in  attracting
indirect sources of pollution such as truck traffic as a result of their
commercial or industrial activities.

Environmental  justice  communities  such as Red Hook and Sunset Park in
Brooklyn have paid the price for the short-sightedness of DAR's  permit-
ting  criteria,  where  five e-commerce warehouses, totaling hundreds of
thousands of square feet, are slated to come online in the near  future.
Driven largely by a pandemic-fueled surge in demand for overnight deliv-
eries, these "last mile" warehouses have resulted in an enormous barrage
of  truck  traffic  in  "as-of-right" manufacturing zones throughout New
York City where new construction proliferates without the  need  for  an
environmental review process or community buy-in. According to the Rens-
selaer  Polytechnic  Institute's  Center  for Excellence for Sustainable
Urban Freight Systems, over 2.3 million packages are currently delivered
to New Yorkers every day - up from an average of 1.8 million pre-pandem-
ic. The New York City Department of Transportation, meanwhile,  predicts
that freight traffic will continue to grow 67% between 2012 and 2045.

Last  mile  warehouses  in the overnight delivery age have a much larger
geographic footprint than traditional warehouses, resulting in a signif-
icantly higher volume of trucks, which are bigger in size and thus  more
polluting. DEC's permitting of these facilities, which until the passage
of the CLCPA was never required to count impact on disparate communities
as a criterion, has indisputably played a role in the significant levels
of  air  and  noise  pollution, amongst other externalities, suffered by
residents of these communities.

According to a program policy adopted by DEC's DAR adopted  in  December
2022  ("DAR-21 - The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and
Air  Permit  Applications  DEC  Program  Policy"),  applicants  for  air
pollution  control  permits must now include information on any "reason-
ably foreseeable...indirect emissions", described as "emissions that are
a consequence of the activities of the reporting facility but may  occur
at sources owned or controlled by another entity" in their applications.
There  is  nothing  to  guarantee,  however, that DAR actually rejects a
permit based on the scope of such indirect emissions.

This bill makes meaningful strides towards a full accounting of our city
and state's last mile trucking  problem  by  including  in  the  CLCPA's
community air monitoring study an examination of the role that the state
itself  has  played in burdening disadvantaged communities via the issu-
ance of air pollution control permits.  Including DEC's permitting proc-
ess as an addendum to the  community  air  monitoring  study,  which  is
designed  by statute to reduce air pollution in communities "with a high
cumulative exposure burden", is both logical and fair.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023: S6299 - Referred to Environmental Conservation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.