On the final day of the 2012 session, the New York State Legislature approved legislation to enact one of NYLCV's top environmental priorities of the year.

Sen. Mark Grisanti, top, and Assembly Member Bob Sweeney championed this important legislation.In the waning hours of the session, the Assembly and Senate approved the Sewage Pollution Right-to-Know Act, which requires sewage treatment plants to notify the public when raw or partially treated sewage is discharged into New York waters.

NYLCV would like to applaud Senate and Assembly lawmakers -- as well as our coalition partners, Riverkeeper and Citizens Campaign for the Environment -- for this environmental victory.

Untreated sewage is the most common contaminant of New York's waterways. But if the public doesn’t know that sewage is being discharged into our rivers and streams, nothing will be done to stem the flow.

The new law will change that. The public notification requirement must include the volume, date, and time of the discharge, as well as an estimate of the time it will take to end it and updates on the steps being taken to contain the sewage contamination. Local governments, health departments and the media must be notified too.

More than 20 states have already passed Sewage Right to Know laws that require timely public notification of sewage contamination in public waterways. New York is now on its way to joining them.