New York was one of the first states to mount a major conservation effort. In the 1970s, well over $1 billion was spent to reclaim the state from the ravages of pollution. State conservation efforts date back at least to 1885, when a forest preserve was legally established in the Adirondacks and Catskills. Adirondack Park was created in 1892, Catskill Park in 1904. Then, as now, the issue was how much if any state forestland would be put to commercial use. Timber cutting in the forest
New York Counties, County Seats, and County Areas and Populations
COUNTY | COUNTY SEAT | LAND AREA (SQ MI) | POPULATION (2002 EST.) | COUNTY | COUNTY SEAT | LAND AREA (SQ MI) | POPULATION (2002 EST.) |
* Mail Lake George. ** Mail Fort Edward. | |||||||
Albany | Albany | 584 | 296,173 | Niagara | Lockport | 526 | 218,099 |
Allegany | Belmont | 1,032 | 50,181 | Oneida | Utica | 1,819 | 234,966 |
Bronx | Bronx | 42 | 1,354,068 | Onondaga | Syracuse | 785 | 460,776 |
Broome | Binghamton | 712 | 200,324 | Ontario | Canandaigua | 644 | 101,567 |
Cattaraugus | Little Valley | 1,306 | 83,269 | Orange | Goshen | 826 | 356,773 |
Cayuga | Auburn | 695 | 81,562 | Orleans | Albion | 391 | 43,891 |
Chautauqua | Mayville | 1,064 | 138,332 | Oswego | Oswego | 954 | 122,932 |
Chemung | Elmira | 411 | 90,614 | Otsego | Cooperstown | 1,004 | 62,070 |
Chenango | Norwich | 897 | 51,324 | Putnam | Carmel | 231 | 98,257 |
Clinton | Plattsburgh | 1,043 | 81,069 | Queens | Queens | 109 | 2,237,815 |
Columbia | Hudson | 628 | 63,532 | Rensselaer | Troy | 655 | 153,299 |
Cortland | Cortland | 500 | 48,814 | Richmond | Staten Island | 59 | 457,383 |
Delaware | Delhi | 1,440 | 47,302 | Rockland | New City | 175 | 291,835 |
Dutchess | Poughkeepsie | 804 | 287,752 | St. Lawrence | Canton | 2,728 | 111,173 |
Erie | Buffalo | 1,046 | 945,049 | Saratoga | Ballston Spa | 810 | 207,135 |
Essex | Elizabethtown | 1,806 | 38,935 | Schenectady | Schenectady | 206 | 147,120 |
Franklin | Malone | 1,648 | 50,964 | Schoharie | Schoharie | 624 | 31,855 |
Fulton | Johnstown | 497 | 55,049 | Schuyler | Watkins Glen | 329 | 19,375 |
Genesee | Batavia | 495 | 59,799 | Seneca | Waterloo | 327 | 34,976 |
Greene | Catskill | 648 | 48,538 | Steuben | Bath | 1,396 | 99,313 |
Hamilton | Lake Pleasant | 1,721 | 5,295 | Suffolk | Riverhead | 911 | 1,458,655 |
Herkimer | Herkimer | 1,416 | 63,741 | Sullivan | Monticello | 976 | 74,273 |
Jefferson | Watertown | 1,273 | 108,160 | Tioga | Owego | 519 | 51,772 |
Kings | Brooklyn | 70 | 2,488,194 | Tompkins | Ithaca | 477 | 99,207 |
Lewis | Lowville | 1,283 | 26,673 | Ulster | Kingston | 1,131 | 179,986 |
Livingston | Geneseo | 633 | 64,824 | Warren | Town of Queensbury* | 882 | 63,906 |
Madison | Wampsville | 656 | 69,789 | Washington | Hudson Falls** | 836 | 61,195 |
Monroe | Rochester | 663 | 738,422 | Wayne | Lyons | 605 | 94,078 |
Montgomery | Fonda | 404 | 49,387 | Westchester | White Plains | 438 | 937,279 |
Nassau | Mineola | 287 | 1,344,892 | Wyoming | Warsaw | 595 | 43,165 |
New York | New York | 22 | 1,546,856 | Yates | Penn Yan | 339 | 24,523 |
TOTALS | 47,377 | 19,157,532 |
preserve was legalized in 1893, but the constitution of 1895 forbade the practice. By the late 1930s, the state had spent more than $16 million on land purchases and controlled 2,159,795 acres (874,041 hectares) in the Adirondacks and some 230,000 acres (more than 93,000 hectares) in the Catskills. The constitutional revision of 1894 expressly outlawed the sale, removal, or destruction of timber on forestlands. That requirement was modified by constitutional amendment in 1957 and 1973, however, and the state is now permitted to sell forest products from the preserves in limited amounts.
All state environmental programs are run by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), established in 1970. The department oversees pollution control programs, monitors environmental quality, manages the forest preserves, and administers fish and wildlife laws (including the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses). The state's national parks totaled 35,914 acres (14,534 hectares). State parks and recreational areas totaled 258,000 acres (104,000 hectares). Wetlands covered 2.5 million acres of the state as of 2000. About one-half of the 160 species identified as endangered or threatened by the Department of Environmental Conservation are wetlands-dependent.
The chief air-quality problem areas are Buffalo, where levels of particles (especially from the use of coke in steelmaking) are high, and New York City, where little progress has been made in cutting carbon monoxide emissions from motor vehicles.
Despite air-quality efforts, acid rain has been blamed for killing fish and trees in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and other areas. In 1984, the legislature passed the first measure in the nation designed to reduce acid rain, calling for a cut of 12% in sulfur dioxide emissions by 1988 and further reductions after that. In 2000, the state legislature passed the Air Pollution Mitigation Law, which penalized New York utilities for selling sulfur dioxide allowances to other states; the law was overturned in April 2002, when a federal district court ruled that the law both restricted interstate commerce and was preempted by the federal Clean Air Act.
Before the 1960s, the condition of New York's waters was a national scandal. Raw sewage, arsenic, cyanide, and heavy metals were regularly dumped into the state's lakes and rivers, and fish were rapidly dying off. Two Pure Waters Bond Acts during the 1960s, the Environmental Quality Bond Act of 1972, and a state fishery program have helped reverse the damage. The state has also taken action against corporate polluters, including a $7-million settlement with General Electric over that company's discharge of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson. In addition, the state and federal government spent perhaps $45 million between 1978 and 1982 on the cleanup of the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, which was contaminated by the improper disposal of toxic wastes, and on the relocation of some 400 families that had lived there. Remaining problems include continued dumping of sewage and industrial wastes into New York Bay and Long Island Sound, sewage overflows into the Lower Hudson, industrial dumping in the Hudson Valley, nuclear wastes in West Valley in Cattaraugus County, and contamination of fish in Lake Erie. Toxic pollutants, such as organic chemicals and heavy metals, appear in surface and groundwater to an extent not yet fully assessed.
In 2003, New York had 485 hazardous waste sites listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's database, 90 of which were on the National Priorities List. A 1982 law requires a deposit on beer and soft-drink containers sold in the state, to encourage return and recycling of bottles and cans. In 2001, New York received $253,408,000 in federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency; EPA expenditures for procurement contracts in New York that year amounted to $34,453,000.