Directs the department of transportation and every municipality, locality and public authority that distributes road salt to construct a salt shed within ten years.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9564
SPONSOR: Magnarelli TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the transportation law, in relation to the storage of
road salt
PURPOSE:
To require that all municipalities who use road salt for winter deicing
store that salt in a shed within ten years to reduce run off in water-
ways.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Amends the Transportation Law by adding a new § 23 to require
that all municipalities and localities store their road salt in a
protected shed within ten years. It provides a definition of "road salt"
and standards that salt sheds must meet to avoid salt being lost to run
off.
Section 2: Establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
A growing environmental issue in New York is salt pollution from road
salt entering our waterways. In 2020, the State Legislature passed
legislation to create the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Taskforce.
This taskforce produced a report in 2023 that highlighted the growing
danger of salt pollution in the watersheds of the Adirondacks that
threatens private wells, municipal water supplies, farms, and wildlife.
The report also discussed several best practices for reducing salt use
while maintaining safe roads.
In 2025, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection also
released a report that showed rising salt pollution levels in the reser-
voirs and watersheds that provide drinking water to New York City and
surrounding municipalities. It found that if left unchecked, critical
reservoirs could be rendered unusable by the end of the century.
As a result of these reports, the NYS Assembly Transportation, Environ-
mental Conservation and Health Committees convened a roundtable to
discuss this issue with government agencies and experts to discuss ways
to reduce salt use. One recommendation from that meeting was to ensure
road salt was being properly stored to eliminate run off. Unfortunately,
several municipalities still store their salt out in the open. This
legislation seeks to remedy this by giving all state agencies and muni-
cipalities ten years to properly store their road salt. The timeframe
would give these entities ample time to comply.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9564
IN ASSEMBLY
January 14, 2026
___________
Introduced by M. of A. MAGNARELLI -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the transportation law, in relation to the storage of
road salt
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The transportation law is amended by adding a new section
2 23 to read as follows:
3 § 23. Storage of road salt. 1. For the protection of road salt, the
4 department and every municipality, locality, and authority that distrib-
5 utes road salt shall construct a salt shed within ten years of the
6 effective date of this section.
7 2. For the purposes of this section, the term "road salt" shall mean a
8 mineral form of sodium chloride to melt snow and ice on roads by lower-
9 ing water's freezing point.
10 3. Salt sheds should maintain a reasonable separation from streams,
11 lakes, ponds, private and public potable water wells, groundwater sourc-
12 es used for public water systems, surface waters of the state, primary
13 water supplies and principal/sole source aquifers.
14 4. Salt sheds shall be used year-round to prevent precipitation from
15 merging with stored salt or salt and sand mixture.
16 5. Salt storage shed bases and their covers, if applicable, shall be
17 impermeable. Covers shall be secured against the wind, always remain on
18 the pile and be of sufficient size to enclose the entire pile and only
19 be opened to the least needed dimensions necessary for transfer.
20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13871-02-5
