To fill a perceived gap in federal and state environmental regulations, the Town Board of Stony Point, New York recently adopted an Environmental Projection and Abandoned Commercial Property Reclamation Law, reports LoHud.  

The law requires outgoing business owners of larger properties to remove all hazardous waste at their own cost, including coal and other non-regulated contaminants.  Owners must also engage a consultant who is responsible for assessing the environmental cleanup and reporting back to the Town Board.

The new law is now under fire from the Mirant energy company, which is suing the Town under allegations that the law is unconstitutional and conflicts with state and federal laws that regulate hazardous materials. 

According to a Lohud article, a spokesperson from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) stated that the DEC had no problems with municipalities enacting this type of law and would be willing to work with them as well as industries. 

Coal is considered neither a solid waste nor hazardous material, yet once exposed to the elements can leach substances that create acidic runoff and heavy metal and sulfuric contamination.

Mirant has mostly demolished its Lovett Generating Station in Tomkins Cove.  According to the website of the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, "one of the worst polluters in the Hudson Valley has vanished."