FoBP Joins Efforts to Ensure Safe Environmental Testing

Dear Friends,

Attached is a letter sent to Council President Christine Quinn signed by over 62 organizations opposing Int. 650-A.

Members of the coalition continue to believe that that despite the large number of drafts that the bill has had to go through to remove blatantly obvious flaws and objectionable provisions, the proposed bill continues to demonstrate the administration's failure to produce a carefully crafted bill which narrowly achieves its legislative intent.
Despite the changes made by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the proposed legislation is still fundamentally flawed. In our estimation, despite NYPD's stated intention, the bill would leave the city less safe, not more.

The most recent revision proposed seems intended to resolve the objection that the bill grants undue authority to seize detectors. It does not. While we have proposed language amending the proposed legislation which would improve the bill on this issue, we emphasize that it would not eliminate opposition to the intrusion and control over environmental monitoring and the negative public health implications.

Calls are needed now to members of the CityCouncil to urge that Int. 650-A be defeated. Please call your City Council representative and urge Int 650 be defeated.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

125 Cedar Street Residents * 9/11 Environmental Action * Actor’s Equity Assn * Asian American Legal Defense Fund * American Littoral Society, NE Chapter * American Lung Assn of the City of NY * Asthma Free School Zones (Real World Foundation) * Battery Park City Community Emergency Response Team * CHEJ * Chinese Progressive Association * CEC * CWA, District 1 & Local 1180 * Concerned Stuyvesant Community * DC 37, AFSCME * EDF * Environmental Toxicology Laboratory * Friends of Brook Park * Healthy Schools Network * IATSE, Local 1 * Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany * League of Conservation Voters * Long Island Soundkeeper * Lower East Side Ecology Center * Manhattan Community Board #1, 3M, 6 * Maui Peace Action * NRDC * Natural Resources Protective Assn. * National Lawyers Guild, Environmental Justice Committee * NYC Group of the Sierra Club * NYC Central Labor Council * NYCLU * NYCOSH * NY Environmental Law & Justice Project * NY Lawyers for the Public Interest * NY/NJ Baykeeper, Inc. * NYPIRG * NY Soil and Water Conservation District * NY State Laborers International Union * NY State Public Employees Federation * Organization of Staff Analysts * PSC of CUNY, NYSUT, AFT * PHANYC * Riverkeeper, Inc. * RWDSU/UFCW * South Bridge Parents and Youth Assn. * Staten Island Taxpayers Assn., Inc. * StuyHealth * Sustainable South Bronx * The Environmental Health Clinic * The Gaia Institute * TWU, Local 100 * Tribeca Community Emergency Response Team * United Auto Workers, Region 9A * United Church of Christ * United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities * Wellness in Schools * WEACT * Working Families Party * World Trade Center Community Labor Coalition * World Trade Center Environmental Organization * World Trade Center Residents Coalition

Water and Air Quality Testing Threatened

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council are rushing to push through
a bill, 2007 Intro 650, which would require police department -
issued permits for anyone or organization to possess
environmental monitoring equipment or to conduct environmental
investigations with instrumentation to measure air or water
pollutants, radiation, or biological contamination. If such
police department permit is not issued, the perpetrator has
committed a misdemeanor. There are all kinds of impediments in
the bill to persons other than City officials owning or using
environmental monitoring equipment. This quashes scientific and
educational investigations, making the government the sole
authority in assessing the health of our air and water.

This is a serious move on the part of the NYC Council to hinder
environnmental assessments, even by environmental engineers who
serve our patients by identifiying toxic exposures. Please
distribute this widely.

Here are excerpts of the language of the bill:
It shall be unlawful for any person to possess or deploy a
biological, chemical or radiological detector in the city of New
York unless such person holds a valid permit therefor, provided
that the commissioner in his or her discretion may exclude by
rule any class or type of biological, chemical or radiological
detector that shall not require such permit because requiring a
permit therefor would not further the purposes of this chapter.

While the proliferation of these capabilities may represent a
positive development in furthering public safety, such
instruments should be deployed and operated only with the
knowledge of the Police Department and other appropriate City
agencies. Moreover, the City has an interest in the reliability
and effectiveness of these instruments so that their deployment
will not cause excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety
that a large-scale public emergency is occurring. Therefore, the
Council finds that, to further the public safety, the possession
and deployment of biological, chemical and radiological detectors
should be regulated by the issuance of permits and the
promulgation of standards for such detectors and their use, and
that alarms triggered by such detectors should be immediately
reported according to prescribed procedures.

Here's the very short, very damaging bill:

http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int%200650-2007.htm?CFID\
=1037835&CFTOKEN=99377284

I understand that there may be another hearing within the next
few days and that the Mayor and City Council Speaker want to push
this through this coming week. For the time being, the New York
Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) is serving
as the point organization for those organizations and scientists
who are against this bill. Their contact information is: Dave
Newman, (212) 227-6440, dave@nycosh.org. Their testimony is at:
http://www.nycosh.org/pdf/NYC_council_Joint_Testimony1_08_08.pdf
>

We don't have much time. Please forward this widely and
especially to national, professional organizations if you have
contacts there.


Please send comments or suggestions on Int 650 to Massiel Garcia
in the Mayor’s Office of City Legislative Affairs,
MGarcia@cityhall.nyc.gov, and please copy Alix Pustilnik, Deputy
Director, City Council Government Operations Division, at
Legpusti@council.nyc.gov.

Maggie Clarke, Ph.D.
www.MaggieClarkeEnvironmental.com
Environmental
Scientist, Educator
mclarke@hunter.cuny.edu

Water and Air Quality Testing Threatened

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council are rushing to push through
a bill, 2007 Intro 650, which would require police department -
issued permits for anyone or organization to possess
environmental monitoring equipment or to conduct environmental
investigations with instrumentation to measure air or water
pollutants, radiation, or biological contamination. If such
police department permit is not issued, the perpetrator has
committed a misdemeanor. There are all kinds of impediments in
the bill to persons other than City officials owning or using
environmental monitoring equipment. This quashes scientific and
educational investigations, making the government the sole
authority in assessing the health of our air and water.

This is a serious move on the part of the NYC Council to hinder
environnmental assessments, even by environmental engineers who
serve our patients by identifiying toxic exposures. Please
distribute this widely.

Here are excerpts of the language of the bill:
It shall be unlawful for any person to possess or deploy a
biological, chemical or radiological detector in the city of New
York unless such person holds a valid permit therefor, provided
that the commissioner in his or her discretion may exclude by
rule any class or type of biological, chemical or radiological
detector that shall not require such permit because requiring a
permit therefor would not further the purposes of this chapter.

While the proliferation of these capabilities may represent a
positive development in furthering public safety, such
instruments should be deployed and operated only with the
knowledge of the Police Department and other appropriate City
agencies. Moreover, the City has an interest in the reliability
and effectiveness of these instruments so that their deployment
will not cause excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety
that a large-scale public emergency is occurring. Therefore, the
Council finds that, to further the public safety, the possession
and deployment of biological, chemical and radiological detectors
should be regulated by the issuance of permits and the
promulgation of standards for such detectors and their use, and
that alarms triggered by such detectors should be immediately
reported according to prescribed procedures.

Here's the very short, very damaging bill:

http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int%200650-2007.htm?CFID\
=1037835&CFTOKEN=99377284

I understand that there may be another hearing within the next
few days and that the Mayor and City Council Speaker want to push
this through this coming week. For the time being, the New York
Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) is serving
as the point organization for those organizations and scientists
who are against this bill. Their contact information is: Dave
Newman, (212) 227-6440, dave@nycosh.org. Their testimony is at:
http://www.nycosh.org/pdf/NYC_council_Joint_Testimony1_08_08.pdf
>

We don't have much time. Please forward this widely and
especially to national, professional organizations if you have
contacts there.


Please send comments or suggestions on Int 650 to Massiel Garcia
in the Mayor’s Office of City Legislative Affairs,
MGarcia@cityhall.nyc.gov, and please copy Alix Pustilnik, Deputy
Director, City Council Government Operations Division, at
Legpusti@council.nyc.gov.

Maggie Clarke, Ph.D.
www.MaggieClarkeEnvironmental.com
Environmental
Scientist, Educator
mclarke@hunter.cuny.edu