New York

Environmental protection

New York was one of the first states to mount a major conservation effort. In the 1970s, well over $1 billion was spent to reclaim the state from the ravages of pollution. State conservation efforts date back at least to 1885, when a forest preserve was legally established in the Adirondacks and Catskills. Adirondack Park was created in 1892, Catskill Park in 1904. Then, as now, the issue was how much if any state forestland would be put to commercial use. Timber cutting in the forest

New York
New York Counties, County Seats, and County Areas and Populations
New York Counties, County Seats, and County Areas and Populations

New York Counties, County Seats, and County Areas and Populations

COUNTY COUNTY SEAT LAND AREA (SQ MI) POPULATION (2002 EST.) COUNTY COUNTY SEAT LAND AREA (SQ MI) POPULATION (2002 EST.)
        * Mail Lake George. ** Mail Fort Edward.
Albany Albany 584 296,173 Niagara Lockport 526 218,099
Allegany Belmont 1,032 50,181 Oneida Utica 1,819 234,966
Bronx Bronx 42 1,354,068 Onondaga Syracuse 785 460,776
Broome Binghamton 712 200,324 Ontario Canandaigua 644 101,567
Cattaraugus Little Valley 1,306 83,269 Orange Goshen 826 356,773
Cayuga Auburn 695 81,562 Orleans Albion 391 43,891
Chautauqua Mayville 1,064 138,332 Oswego Oswego 954 122,932
Chemung Elmira 411 90,614 Otsego Cooperstown 1,004 62,070
Chenango Norwich 897 51,324 Putnam Carmel 231 98,257
Clinton Plattsburgh 1,043 81,069 Queens Queens 109 2,237,815
Columbia Hudson 628 63,532 Rensselaer Troy 655 153,299
Cortland Cortland 500 48,814 Richmond Staten Island 59 457,383
Delaware Delhi 1,440 47,302 Rockland New City 175 291,835
Dutchess Poughkeepsie 804 287,752 St. Lawrence Canton 2,728 111,173
Erie Buffalo 1,046 945,049 Saratoga Ballston Spa 810 207,135
Essex Elizabethtown 1,806 38,935 Schenectady Schenectady 206 147,120
Franklin Malone 1,648 50,964 Schoharie Schoharie 624 31,855
Fulton Johnstown 497 55,049 Schuyler Watkins Glen 329 19,375
Genesee Batavia 495 59,799 Seneca Waterloo 327 34,976
Greene Catskill 648 48,538 Steuben Bath 1,396 99,313
Hamilton Lake Pleasant 1,721 5,295 Suffolk Riverhead 911 1,458,655
Herkimer Herkimer 1,416 63,741 Sullivan Monticello 976 74,273
Jefferson Watertown 1,273 108,160 Tioga Owego 519 51,772
Kings Brooklyn 70 2,488,194 Tompkins Ithaca 477 99,207
Lewis Lowville 1,283 26,673 Ulster Kingston 1,131 179,986
Livingston Geneseo 633 64,824 Warren Town of Queensbury* 882 63,906
Madison Wampsville 656 69,789 Washington Hudson Falls** 836 61,195
Monroe Rochester 663 738,422 Wayne Lyons 605 94,078
Montgomery Fonda 404 49,387 Westchester White Plains 438 937,279
Nassau Mineola 287 1,344,892 Wyoming Warsaw 595 43,165
New York New York 22 1,546,856 Yates Penn Yan 339 24,523
        TOTALS   47,377 19,157,532

preserve was legalized in 1893, but the constitution of 1895 forbade the practice. By the late 1930s, the state had spent more than $16 million on land purchases and controlled 2,159,795 acres (874,041 hectares) in the Adirondacks and some 230,000 acres (more than 93,000 hectares) in the Catskills. The constitutional revision of 1894 expressly outlawed the sale, removal, or destruction of timber on forestlands. That requirement was modified by constitutional amendment in 1957 and 1973, however, and the state is now permitted to sell forest products from the preserves in limited amounts.

All state environmental programs are run by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), established in 1970. The department oversees pollution control programs, monitors environmental quality, manages the forest preserves, and administers fish and wildlife laws (including the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses). The state's national parks totaled 35,914 acres (14,534 hectares). State parks and recreational areas totaled 258,000 acres (104,000 hectares). Wetlands covered 2.5 million acres of the state as of 2000. About one-half of the 160 species identified as endangered or threatened by the Department of Environmental Conservation are wetlands-dependent.

The chief air-quality problem areas are Buffalo, where levels of particles (especially from the use of coke in steelmaking) are high, and New York City, where little progress has been made in cutting carbon monoxide emissions from motor vehicles.

Despite air-quality efforts, acid rain has been blamed for killing fish and trees in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and other areas. In 1984, the legislature passed the first measure in the nation designed to reduce acid rain, calling for a cut of 12% in sulfur dioxide emissions by 1988 and further reductions after that. In 2000, the state legislature passed the Air Pollution Mitigation Law, which penalized New York utilities for selling sulfur dioxide allowances to other states; the law was overturned in April 2002, when a federal district court ruled that the law both restricted interstate commerce and was preempted by the federal Clean Air Act.

Before the 1960s, the condition of New York's waters was a national scandal. Raw sewage, arsenic, cyanide, and heavy metals were regularly dumped into the state's lakes and rivers, and fish were rapidly dying off. Two Pure Waters Bond Acts during the 1960s, the Environmental Quality Bond Act of 1972, and a state fishery program have helped reverse the damage. The state has also taken action against corporate polluters, including a $7-million settlement with General Electric over that company's discharge of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson. In addition, the state and federal government spent perhaps $45 million between 1978 and 1982 on the cleanup of the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, which was contaminated by the improper disposal of toxic wastes, and on the relocation of some 400 families that had lived there. Remaining problems include continued dumping of sewage and industrial wastes into New York Bay and Long Island Sound, sewage overflows into the Lower Hudson, industrial dumping in the Hudson Valley, nuclear wastes in West Valley in Cattaraugus County, and contamination of fish in Lake Erie. Toxic pollutants, such as organic chemicals and heavy metals, appear in surface and groundwater to an extent not yet fully assessed.

In 2003, New York had 485 hazardous waste sites listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's database, 90 of which were on the National Priorities List. A 1982 law requires a deposit on beer and soft-drink containers sold in the state, to encourage return and recycling of bottles and cans. In 2001, New York received $253,408,000 in federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency; EPA expenditures for procurement contracts in New York that year amounted to $34,453,000.