Politics & Government

City Hall Roundup: New Green Bills and PCB Removal

A legislative roundup of bills passed in City Hall in December 2011

To follow is a legislative roundup of bills passed in City Hall in December 2011:

Green Legislation – The Council passed three bills born out of recommendations made by the Green Codes Task Force. The mayor signed these three bills into law on December 27, 2011.

Intro 576A will prohibit the disposal of water used to wash concrete off of trucks and other equipment at construction sites into the City’s sewer system. Concrete washout water can damage the City’s sewer infrastructure, as well as endanger aquatic life.

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Intro 578A aims to increase the use of recycled asphalt in the city. Currently, about one million tons of asphalt is removed from city streets every year, and the unused asphalt is sent to landfills, creating a significant environmental and economic cost for the City. In order to save the City almost $2 million in disposal costs and reduce the amount of brand new material purchased by the City, this bill will require that all new, non-heavy duty asphalt that is used contains at least 30 percent of recycled asphalt.

Intro 592A will require all new heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems installed after January 1, 2013 to have more efficient filtration mechanisms. These new HVAC systems would filter out significantly smaller particles that could cause asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular issues, birth defects and even premature death.

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PCBs—The Council passed two bills that call on the Department of Education to provide vital and comprehensive information on PCBs found in New York City public schools (including charter schools). Polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs are chemicals that were widely used in construction and electrical materials prior to 1978.

PCBs may be present in overhead fluorescent light ballasts installed before this year—and window caulk in buildings built within a certain time frame—and can be toxic to children and women’s reproductive systems through long-term exposure. The mayor signed both of these bills into law on December 27, 2011.

Intro 563A requires the DOE to notify parents of students and employees in any New York City public school of PCB testing or inspection results. Notification must be made within seven days of receiving the results, whether positive or negative. Additionally, parents and employees must also be told what steps the City has taken or will take towards complete PCB cleanup, along with a time frame for this remediation. If cleanup is not completed within the original time frame given, the legislation requires the agency to inform parents and employees of a new plan. Finally, if a school is identified as part of DOE’s PCB lighting removal plan, parents of children who attend the school and its employees would need to be alerted every year of why they are part of the plan and of the time frame for PCB cleanup. This notice would be on an annual basis, beginning in April 2012 and in November every year following.

Intro 566A requires the DOE to submit an annual report to the Council on its progress to rid light fixtures of PCBs and to address issues related to PCBs in window caulk. The report would provide an updated list of all City public schools identified as part of the plan, along with a time frame for cleanup. In addition, a list of schools in which PCB levels have been addressed, an explanation of the way the situation was handled, and how long the process took would be included. Finally, the report would require information on the agency’s efforts to address PCBs in caulk, including test results of pilot studies the DOE is conducting pursuant to a consent order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Carbon Monoxide Detector Bill— Carbon monoxide detectors last for roughly six or seven years before they no longer effectively detect carbon monoxide (CO). Under a law passed in 2004, landlords were required to install CO detectors for their tenants.

However, the detectors that were installed after that law went into effect are now coming to the end of their useful life. Tenants and landlords might be unaware that these detectors are no longer function, potentially putting many city tenants at risk.

Intro 746 is legislation the Council passed that will improve tenant safety by requiring landlords replace expired carbon monoxide detectors with new models that emit an audible beep when they no longer function properly. As with the original mandate, tenants will still be required to pay $25 towards the cost of replacement.


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