Earlier today Suffolk County, New York with a robust population near 1.5 million, passed a ban on the use and sale of coal tar pavement sealants. This ban marks the second county in the United States to do so. Under the leadership of the Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer William J. Lindsay, the bill passed the Suffolk County Legislature.
“Suffolk County is proud to join the communities across this country and indeed across the world that have banned coal tar-based sealcoats,” said Lindsay. “With effective alternatives readily available, there is no reason to allow the use of coal tar-based sealants, which contain large amounts of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and have been proven to be dangerous to humans and a severe threat to marine life of virtually every variety. I hope this will be another step in encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of coal tar-based sealcoats nation-wide.”
With a long standing tradition of leadership on environmental rules, the Legislature passed the resolution that will go into effect January 1, 2012. Penalties for the first violation will be $500 and $750 for subsequent ones. The text of the bill as it was at the time of this writing is located here.
Suffolk County, while more populated than 10 states, ranks as one of the highest in New York agricultural production. The area is also well-known for its parks and beaches.
This blog covered the introduction of this bill a few weeks ago and can be read at this link.
The passage of this ban raises the population of the US that is under a coal tar sealant ban up to over 10.2 million people.