Sound pollution control and emergency preparedness policies depend on the knowledge of industrial hazardous waste disposal practices. A comprehensive mechanism is needed to determine the types and amounts of chemical raw materials that are used, stored, manufactured and transported by industries that operate in the State. While the current "cradle-to-grave" manifest system, implemented by chapter six hundred thirty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred seventy-eight, is designed to track present and future disposal of hazardous wastes, no systematic industrial survey has been undertaken to ascertain industry's hazardous waste disposal practices over the past thirty years.
It is therefore the purpose of this Order to coordinate the practices of the Department of Environmental Conservation in furtherance of an industrial chemical survey to be conducted on an on-going basis. This survey will provide complete information on the types and amounts of potentially toxic raw materials used, stored, manufactured or transported in this State. Such a survey is a necessary and desirable component for successful pollution control and emergency preparedness programs.
It is further intended that the department shall conduct a one-year study of waste disposal activities by industries operating in the State during the past thirty years. This past disposal practices survey will determine the types, quantities and locations of hazardous wastes previously disposed of by industries in the State. This survey will inform citizens and local authorities of any dangers posed by chemical dumps in their communities.
THEREFORE, I, Mario M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York, do hereby promulgate this Order:
1. The Commissioner of Environmental Conservation is directed to conduct an industrial chemical survey to be a component of the Department of Environmental Conservation's on-going efforts to insure safe use and proper disposal of potentially toxic chemicals in the State. Such survey shall be conducted for the purpose of gathering information on the types and quantities of chemical raw materials used, stored, manufactured or transported in this State, which are on the Department's substances of concern list. Within ninety days of the date of this Order, the Commissioner shall develop the industrial chemical survey and distribute it to all facilities in the State which fall into the categories listed in section two of this Order.2. The survey shall be completed by facilities in the State designated by the Commissioner, including, but not limited to, those facilities in the following categories: (a) all facilities in the twenty-one standard industrial classification categories designated under the United States Environmental Protection Agency's "priority pollutant" control program;(b) all facilities which hold or apply for a national pollution discharge elimination system discharge permit;(c) all facilities which hold or apply for discharge permits pursuant to Title seven and eight of Article seventeen of the Environmental Conservation Law;(d) all facilities which discharge effluents into wastewater collections systems; and(e) all solid waste management facilities which hold or apply for permits or are regulated pursuant to section 27-0707 of the Environmental Conservation Law.3. After the initial survey to be conducted pursuant to this Order, an additional industrial chemical survey shall be completed by each such facility upon each application for a permit referred to in section two of this Order and upon each application for a renewal of any of such permits.4. The industrial chemical survey described in section two of this Order shall be accompanied by a past hazardous waste disposal questionnaire, which shall require industries to report on the types, quantities, toxic qualities and locations of hazardous wastes generated and disposed of in the State since 1952, if such information exists. Such questionnaire shall also require, where applicable, reporting of the names and addresses of the transporters of such wastes from the responding industry to the final disposal site. Such questionnaire shall also require the identification of any internal reports, studies or documents relating to the company's disposal practices.5. The Commissioner shall require that the surveys and questionnaire described in this Order shall be completed and returned to the Department no later than 150 days after their receipt.6. The results of the questionnaire described in this Order shall be used to complement the Department's efforts to complete the inactive sites inventory and to set priorities for the undertaking of remedial work on a statewide basis, in addition to facilitating the Department's efforts to manage the problem of existing landfilled hazardous wastes. The Commissioner shall compile a report based on the past waste disposal questionnaires. Such report shall include the names and addresses of the participating facilities, and shall be distributed on or before April 1, 1985 to the Governor, the Legislature, the Commissioner of Health, the Attorney General, all regional offices of the Department and to county health departments. In counties where no such county health department exists, the report shall be distributed to the office of the county clerk.7. Each report distributed to a county health department or an office of the county clerk shall have as an appendix copies of the industrial chemical survey responses submitted by facilities located in the county where the report is distributed, subject to the provisions of section eight of this Order.8. The Department shall hold any information in any survey and questionnaire submitted pursuant to this Order as confidential in accordance with the applicable provisions of section 87 of the Public Officers Law and section 27-1311 of the Environmental Conservation Law. Information which will be held confidential pursuant to such statutes and which would be otherwise disclosed by the copies of the industrial chemical surveys comprising the appendices described in paragraph seven of the Order shall be masked or otherwise removed from such copies.9. For purposes of this Order, the term "hazardous waste" shall have the same meaning as that provided in Title 9 of Article 27 of the Environmental Conservation Law and any regulations promulgated thereunder.10. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately. Signed: Mario M. CuomoDated: December 29, 1983
[FN*] [Revoked by Executive Order No. 31 (George E. Pataki) infra.]
[FN[DAGGER]] [Revoked by Executive Order No. 5 (Eliot Spitzer), infra.]
[Revoked by Executive Order No. 9 (David A. Paterson), infra.]
[Revoked by Executive Order No. 2 (Andrew M. Cuomo), infra.]
N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 9 § 4.33