The 2001 session of the New York State Legislature produced several noteworthy pieces of environmental legislation. What a year ago was seen as the most important and likely new law – a package reforming and financing the State’s brownfields and State Superfund programs- bogged down amid a particularly contentious budget debate[1]� (and disagreement on substantive issues) and derailed completely after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks focused Albany’s attention on more urgent matters and left a number of environmental issues for another day.
However, a few important measures were enacted into law. Most notably, the Property Condition Disclosure Act requires sellers of residential property to provide a statement to prospective buyers disclosing all known defects, including spills of oil and hazardous materials. Another new law speeds up the siting of new power plants that meet certain stringent requirements for air emissions and cooling water use. A bill on casinos in the Catskills contained a sleeper provision that exempts broader classes of actions from the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Municipalities were given a way to seek relief from stringent environmental regulations. Asthma cases will be tracked under a new law that requires the reporting of emergency room visits.
