N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 15-0103: Legislative findings

§ 15-0103. Legislative findings.

Article 15 shall be construed and administered in the light of the

following findings of fact:

1. The sovereign power to regulate and control the water resources of

this state ever since its establishment has been and now is vested

exclusively in the state of New York, except to the extent of any

delegation of power to the United States;

2. New York State has been generously endowed with water resources

which have contributed and continue to contribute greatly to the

position of preeminence attained by New York in population, agriculture,

commerce, trade, industry and outdoor recreation;

3. Adequate and suitable water for water supply, domestic, municipal,

industrial, agricultural and commercial uses, power, irrigation,

transportation, fire protection, sewage and waste assimilation, the

growth of forests, maintenance of fish and wildlife, recreational

enjoyment and other uses is essential to the health, safety and welfare

of the people and economic growth and prosperity of the state;

4. In recent years our population growth and the development and use

of new technology and processes have resulted in demands for more water

and the equitable use thereof for these purposes;

5. In recent years recreational activities are making new and greater

demands on lakes and streams of the state for boating, fishing, bathing

and water sports, and the lands adjacent thereto for campsites, access

areas and public beaches;

6. The growth of cities and urban areas and their expansion into

formerly rural areas has in many cases resulted in the filling in,

diversion and destruction of water courses, necessarily destroying

aquatic habitat and lessening supplies of water for multiple use

purposes;

7. Increased motorized highway travel and public safety are requiring

the construction of new, better and larger public highways which may

alter the water ways of the state and encroach upon water courses and

affect their uses;

8. All fish, game, wildlife, shellfish, crustacea and protected

insects in the state, except those legally acquired and held in private

ownership, are owned by the state and held for the use and enjoyment of

the people of the state, and the state has a responsibility to preserve,

protect and conserve such terrestrial and aquatic resources from

destruction and damage and to promote their natural propagation;

9. The unreasonable, uncontrolled and unnecessary interference with or

defilement and disturbance of water courses create hazards to the

health, safety and welfare of the people of the state causing great

economic loss by erosion of soil, increased costs of water purification

and treatment, the loss of crop lands and forests by flooding, the

destruction and failure of natural propagation of fish and aquatic

resources and the loss of water for domestic, industrial, navigational,

municipal, agricultural, recreational and other beneficial uses and

purposes;

10. The unreasonable and unregulated (a) interference with the

channels and beds of lakes and streams by construction of dams, roads

and other structures, (b) alteration of water courses and gradients, (c)

impounding of water, (d) dredging and filling in of stream beds, and the

unreasonable removal of sand, gravel or other materials from streams,

and by other action, have resulted in pollution of such waters, increase

in turbidity and the deposit of silt and debris, irregular variations of

velocity, temperature and levels of water, erosion of banks and uplands

and the flooding of valuable lands;

11. The department, and two of its predecessors, the Water Resources

Commission and the Water Pollution Control Board, has classified

substantially all of the waters of the state;

12. The department, pursuant to title 11 of article 15 of the

Environmental Conservation Law, is continuing the work of its

predecessor, the Water Resources Commission in undertaking comprehensive

planning for the protection, conservation and development of the water

resources of the state;

13. It is in the best interest of the state that provision be made for

the regulation and supervision of activities that deplete, defile,

damage or otherwise adversely affect the waters of the state and land

resources associated therewith.