New laws concerning the practice of geology have been adopted as a part of Title VIII, Article 145 of the New York Education Law (EL) and Articles XII and XIII of the New York Limited Liability Company Law (LLCL). While the new rules generally came into effect as of Nov. 21, 2016, most of the geology provisions did not become effective until as of March 1, 2018. Until then, the profession of geology was generally unrestricted in New York, but with the new rules, subject to a few transition exceptions, the practice of geology will be restricted in a manner similar to engineering, land surveying, architecture, and landscape architecture in New York. For instance, pursuant to the new EL §7204-b, the practice of geology and the use of the title “professional geologist” in New York will be limited to those who are licensed in New York to provide geology services or otherwise specifically authorized under the EL.
Definition of the Practice of Geology
Effective Nov. 21, 2016, EL §7204-a defines the “profession of geology” broadly as follows:
The practice of the profession of geology is defined as performing professional service such as researching, investigating, consulting and geological mapping, describing the natural processes that act upon the earth’s materials, predicting the probable occurrence of natural resources, predicting and locating natural or human-induced phenomena which may be useful or hazardous to humankind and recognizing, determining and evaluating geological factors, and the inspection and performance of geological work and the responsible supervision thereof in furtherance of the health, safety and welfare of the public; provided, however, that geological mapping shall not include the practice of land surveying as defined in section seventy-two hundred three of this article.
