NYS Assembly Calls for Full Sewage Notification

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Riverkeeper applauds the New York State Assembly Members who have called on Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens to fully implement the Sewage Pollution Right to Know law. Since the law went into effect this May, the DEC has not been notifying the public when combined sewer systems (“CSOs”) discharge raw sewage and storm water into our waters, as required by the law.

Riverkeeper, Citizens Campaign for the Environment and League of Conservation Voters have started a campaign to get CSO discharges included in DEC’s notifications.

The legislators told the Commissioner “we urge (the DEC) to ensure that the maximum amount of information, including Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) discharge information, is made available to the public in a timely, easily-accessible manner and that no distinction is made between CSO discharges and other types of discharges.”

Thank you to Assemblyman Robert Sweeney and the 21 other legislators who are standing up for government transparency and clean water.

Read the full letter.