New law allows public access to water-use reports

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill by Sen. James Skoufis that was spawned by concerns about the potential impact of Kiryas Joel’s well in Cornwall on residential and other municipal wells in the vicinity and on the nearby Woodbury Creek.

The legislation Cuomo signed on Nov. 8, after nearly unanimous approval in both the Senate and Assembly earlier this year, will require the state Department of Environmental Conservation to post annual reports online for all public water supplies in New York that show how much water they are using. The policy takes effect on Feb. 6.

The purpose is to make reports that municipalities already submit to the DEC more readily available to the public when concerns arise about the amount of groundwater being drawn.