4:09
Environmental advocates and North Country lawmakers are celebrating New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signing of a bill aimed at reducing the use of road salt.
The New York legislature this session passed the Randy Preston Road Salt Protection Act, a bill intended to safeguard drinking water and protect the environment. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill last Thursday.
Democratic Assemblyman D. Billy Jones of the 115th District was in Saranac Lake with North Country supporters of the bill to celebrate the measure becoming law. Jones says road salt is threatening public health and the environment. “We’ve known for years and years and decades now the corrosive effects that salt has on our environment. And I have been in homes that have dealt with this. It gets into their water wells. A house that I had visited in Saranac, it’s a brand new constructed home with a brand new well, they have had to ship water in. And there are many homes like that and residents like that throughout the North Country and the Adirondacks. And also our environment. Salt is getting into our waterways and our aquifers and doing damage to them.”