177. Emergency oil spill control network. 1. The commissioner shall establish an emergency oil spill control network which shall be comprised of available equipment from appropriate town, county and state highway departments. Such network shall be employed to provide an immediate response to a discharge on any of the waters of the state. Furthermore, such network shall be employed in conjunction with the cleanup operations of the owner or operator, the department and any federal agency.
2. The commissioner shall make an inventory of all equipment in town, county, and state highway departments that would be capable of participating in discharge cleanup operations.
3. The commissioner shall have the power to deploy such equipment to participate in a discharge cleanup operation at his discretion and to reimburse such town, county, and state highway departments for use of such equipment from the fund.
4. The commissioner may request and shall receive from any other state agency such assistance and data as will enable him to carry out his responsibilities pursuant to this section.
5. (a) The commissioner shall issue a catalogue designed to expedite responses to discharges of petroleum.
(b) The catalogue shall contain the following information, broken down by geographical area:
(i) a listing of state stand-by contractors, their equipment and spill response capabilities;
(ii) a listing of state-owned equipment which could be used in the event of a major discharge of petroleum;
(iii) a listing of companies and organizations that have spill response equipment available for sale, lease or loan; and
(iv) a listing of organizations which are involved in the cleanup and rehabilitation of birds and wildlife.
(c) The catalogue shall be updated as deemed appropriate by the commissioner.
(d) The commissioner shall notify the chief executive officer of all counties which border on any navigable waters of the state or on the marine and coastal district, as defined in section 13-0303 of the environmental conservation law, of the availability of the catalogue. This catalogue shall be distributed upon request at a maximum fee of twenty-five cents per page. Any such fee shall be deposited into the New York environmental protection and spill compensation fund established pursuant to section one hundred seventy-nine of this article.
6. The commissioner may institute a program to educate local officials on procedures to follow in reporting and responding to spill emergencies.
Last modified: February 3, 2019