Talk:New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Website not public domain?
It seems that website policy http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/577.html is incompatible with wikipedia. Is there any way how to use its content? --Snek01 (talk) 21:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, paraphrase it and cite it properly. As you would any other copyrighted resource. Daniel Case (talk) 23:49, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

This page is woefully incomplete
This page should also cover the NYS Conservation Department, and whatever preceded that. There is so little information about Forest Rangers, and what they do, like maintaining trails.

My brother was on the Blue Fox Search and rescue team, and there's virtually nothing about that. I do know it [Blue Fox] was patterned after the California group "Sierra Madre Search and Rescue team". They were called in [to NY] on a search and the state was so impressed with them that they started their own team.

Also there's little or nothing about what went into the decision to have Rangers carry guns.DavidHenrickson (talk) 20:56, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * If there's reliable sources with this information, please put links or other info here. I'd love to have a more detailed history of the predecessor agencies. And more stuff about the Forest Rangers (actually, and I can speak from personal experience here, a lot of trail maintenance is done by private groups). I wrote the most perfunctory outline I could a few years ago because I was linking to this so much, and I'd love more info. Daniel Case (talk) 02:41, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Updates to February 2014
Much of the information here is four or more years out of date. Please, can we work to update some of these sections? Bearian (talk) 17:51, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

DEC Commissioner
Basil Seggos, deputy secretary for the environment in Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration, has been nominated as DEC Commissioner, subject to legislative approval (Conners, "New DEC commissioner faces hard choices ahead," Poughkeepsie Journal, 10/6/2015). DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 18:18, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Proposed Additions To History Section
My name is Andrea Bobersky, and I am an unpaid volunteer for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. I intend to use this account to provide neutral and reliably sourced improvements to the original article. I have read and understand Wikipedia's guidelines for potential conflict of interest and will adhere to those guidelines, as well as disclose my potential for conflict of interest whenever a contribution is proposed. As a user of Wikipedia with a potential conflict of interest, I will not act as a reviewer, nor edit an article directly. I promise to respect other editors and articles, and always remain neutral.

2000-2005
As part of the refinancing and reform the State Superfund Program in 2003, New York created the Brownfield Cleanup Program to mitigate threats to public health and the environment from contaminated sites. The initiative also the redevelopment of abandoned, contaminated properties to revitalize economically blighted communities. Additional regulations enacted in 2009 further improved New York’s site remediation/redevelopment process.

Under the Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act of 2003, DEC developed a plan to manage and recycle used and discarded tires, and address non-complaint waste tire dumps in the state, which had an estimated 18-20 million scrap tires.

New York proposed and led the effort to create Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program among seven northeast states to lower carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, a major contributor to global warming. RGGI was the first mandatory, market-based cap-and-trade program for CO 2 emission in U.S. history, and has grown to include nine states.

2006–2010
DEC created the Pollution Prevention Institute (P2I) in 2008 at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to bring together academic institutions, not-for-profit institutions and government entities to encourage and support the development of sustainable businesses and organizations, and reduce natural resource consumption and waste.

New York achieved its goal of conserving 1 million acres of open space, including critical forested lands in the Adirondack and Catskills mountains that are now open to outdoor recreation.

2011-Present
DEC facilitated the State’s acquisition and protection of more than 65,000 acres of forested lands in the Adirondacks, including the Essex Chain of Lakes, OK Slip Falls, and Boreas Ponds. The 20,758-acre Boreas Ponds Tract, purchased in the spring of 2016, will be open to the public for the first time.

Under New York’s Sewage Pollution Right to Know (SPRTK) law, publicly owned sewage systems and treatment works are required to report untreated and partially treated sewage discharges to DEC within two hours of the discharge, and also alert the public and adjoining municipalities of discharges within four hours.

DEC, in conjunction with other New York State agencies, updated safety procedures and emergency response preparedness associated with the transport of crude oil by train, reducing the risks of spills that could threaten communities and natural resources.

DEC and the State Department of Health (DOH) chair New York’s Water Quality Rapid Response Team, created in 2016 to evaluate drinking water supply threats across the state, assist communities with water testing and provide technical assistance to ensure universal access to clean drinking water.

DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement (DLE) conducts investigations, including sting operations, to enforce a 2014 state law that banned the sale of elephant and mammoth ivory and rhinoceros horns in New York. The law was designed to enhance global protection for critical animal populations. In 2014, DEC conducted a joint investigation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that led to the seizure of elephant ivory worth more than $8.5 million from jewelers based in New York City.

Following extensive reviews by DEC and the NYS Department of Health, DEC issued a findings statement in 2015 that prohibited high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York.

In 2016, DEC mobilized a massive response to address PFOA contamination in Hoosick Falls, The agency engaged its workforce and contractors to install hundreds of water filtration systems in homes and a filter system at the towns water treatment facility. The agency is also mobilized to ensure safe drinking water in Newburgh, following the discovery of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in city drinking water.

Under New York’s $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act (CWIA) of 2017, DEC is assisting municipal efforts to upgrade drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities and residential septic systems, and mitigate drinking water contamination.

New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), created in 1993, supports a variety of DEC programs, including open space conservation, invasive species control, the Hudson River Estuary Program, Albany Pine Bush and Long Island Pine Barrens, state and municipal parks, and other environmental resource protections. The EPF has been fully funded at $300 annually since 2016.

DEC is overseeing efforts to clean up contamination at the U.S. Navy/Grumman Bethpage site on Long Island, including a $150 million to install wells and treatments facilities to contain and cleanup contamination on the 600-acre site.

DEC’s Division of Marine Resources plays a key role in developing new reefs off the coast of Long Island as part of New York’s Artificial Reef Program. Hundreds of tons of clean, recycled materials, including former girders from the former Tappan Zee Bridge, were strategically placed to settle on the sea floor, creating habitat similar to natural reefs that will attract fish and marine life and expand opportunities for fishing and diving,.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:23, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Basil Seggos.jpg

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:18, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Basil Seggos.jpg

Proposed merge of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police into New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
As an entity contained in the NYS DOE, it makes more sense to include the article on the police division with the NYS DOE in general. Much of the material is either already covered here or should be removed (e.g. tedious details about uniforms), so what is worth merging won't blow it up much. Apocheir (talk) 00:40, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose, given notability as the "oldest state-level police agency in New York, having evolved from the state's game wardens in the late 19th century"; it would also unbalance the target, even with the selective merge proposed, and so readers are best served by having this page remain separate. Klbrain (talk) 03:52, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Oppose, for the reasons above; as noted it predates DEC as an agency. Material on uniforms is also actually rather common in articles about law enforcement agencies ... i.e. the Sillitoe tartan that the Chicago and Pittsburgh police are unique in wearing among major-city police departments, New Jersey state troopers being the last major agency in the English-speaking world to wear Sam Browne belts, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's distinctive red dress uniforms, and so forth. Daniel Case (talk) 04:06, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Oppose, agree with above. It or its predecessors have been around a long time. The proposer seems to like to declare articles non-notable and then discreetly merging them without any discussion on the talk page or warning to the various wiki projects or significant contributors to the article.Patapsco913 (talk) 18:10, 11 December 2022 (UTC)