Newsletter
Volume 4, No. 1
January/February 1999
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So Where Do We Stand? The
Status of the NYSCPG Geologists' licensure bill By William Kelly, President,
NYSCPG
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Since the last revision (2/98) of the NYSCPG-sponsored legislation promotingprofessional licensure for geologists in New York, the NYSCPG Board of Directors, workingin conjunction with our legislative and legal council, have considered several changes inthe language of the bill. Some of these have been agreed upon by the Board and a few arestill under consideration as of this writing. All of the changes are designed tostrengthen the bill, and whether major or minor, will facilitate passage of thislegislation. Rather than quote the actual changed language here, the reader is referred tothe NYSCPG website. The revised bill will be posted there as soon as the last changes arefinalized, likely within two weeks of the current issue of the NYSCPG newsletter.
A modification which has been adopted is the deletion of Section 7428 of the bill whichdealt with the concept of "incidental" practice of design engineering bygeologists. This proved to be a concept (in New York and other states) which steadfastlydefied definition and was a contentious issue with the engineering community from theinception of the bill. Rather than attempt to define this issue in precise legal terms,the NYSCPG Board decided to emulate the example of states such as Pennsylvania and leavethe question to the to-be-established State Board of Geology. This has the additionalbenefit of eliminating a specific point of opposition raised to the legislature last yearby the New York State Society of Professional Engineers (NYSSPE).
A new series of definitions have been adopted in Section 7422 as applied to"geology", "practice of geology" and "licensed professionalgeologist". The original language dealing with these terms was adopted from theAssociation of Engineering Geologists Suggested Practice Act. While the definitions werecomprehensive, they were rather passive. Geologists would "study","investigate", "observe" and "collect". Acting onrecommendations that the language contain more active verbs, the Board modified thedefinitions to include the concept of the "application" of the knowledge gainedby investigation, etc., to the solution of geological problems. Language such asthis is contained in the geologists' licensure bills of North Carolina and other stateswhich have recently passed such legislation.
A third modification, which is likely, is a change in Section 7423 dealing with theState Board of Geology. Discussions with the State Education Department, Office ofProfessions (the agency with oversight authority of all professional boards) reveal thatsaid office will definitely oppose the geology licensure bill on the grounds ofinsufficient resources to establish and administer a new professional board. Currently,NYSCPG is investigating the possibility of combining the geology board with the existingboard of engineers and land surveyors. This would ease the financial burden on the Officeof Professions and further, geologists have been welcomed to the existing board by theengineers and land surveyors. NYSCPG's original objections to a combined board have beenassuaged by the recent passage of legislation liberalizing the regulations of theEngineering Board with regard to existing other profession's representation.
A final possible modification of the bill deals with the language pertaining tocombined corporate practice by engineers and geologists. It is well known that engineeringfirms employ a large number of geologists and routinely depend upon them for geologicalinvestigations and recommendations in the course of doing business. However, it is theopinion of the NYSCPG and our legal council that, once geologists become"professionals", persons working for engineering firms may run afoul ofstrictures in Business Corporation Law, Limited Liability Company Law and State EducationLaw. These laws place limitations on the acceptable forms of professional corporatepractice and in general limit a Professional Service Corporation or a Professional ServiceLimited Liability Company to providing only one professional service. There is anexception to the rule that allows engineers, land surveyors, architects, and landscapearchitects to join in the formation of a corporation. The NYSCPG bill, as currentlydrafted, would add geologists to that list of excepted professions. The engineeringcommunity has offered alternatives to the proposal by NYSCPG which the NYSSPE Board ofDirectors does not find entirely satisfactory with regard to protection of geologistsworking for engineering firms. Lawyers representing the NYSCPG and the NYSSPE, along withthe NYSSPE Executive Director and members of the NYSCPG Legislative Review Committee arenow meeting to try to resolve the issue.
All of the above actual or possible changes will be incorporated into the licensurebill in the very near future. It is the intention of the NYSCPG Board to have the revisedbill printed and in the hands of our legislative sponsors by the first week of February.Watch the NYSCPG web site for posting of the revised bill.
Legislative Update by Don Clarey, The Minerva Group
As we begin the 1999 legislative session, it is a good time to review the process toenact our legislation into law. During the previous session, we were stymied because therewas opposition to certain provisions of our legislation from the Professional Engineers.We believe that those concerns have been resolved and we are going forward with ourrevised legislation shortly, pending final sessions between our lawyers and theEngineers’ attorneys.
Once the language has been agreed to, we will promptly forward it to our primesponsors, Senator Carl L. Marcellino and Assemblyman Steve Englebright. They, in turn,will have the language forwarded to the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, which willmake sure the language conforms to the legislature’s requirements and the bill willbe printed. At that point the prime sponsors will circulate the bill to their colleaguesto seek co-sponsors and then the bill will be introduced, assigned a bill number in eachhouse and assigned to a committee for consideration. We anticipate this portion of theeffort will be completed by early February. We are hopeful that the bills will clear thecommittees and head to the full Senate and Assembly by early April. If there are nosignificant objections raised on the bill, it should pass both house of the legislaturesometime in late May. If we are successful at that juncture, the bill will be sent to theGovernor for his action. When the bill is sent to the Governor he will have ten days(Sundays excepted) to act upon it.
While this sounds fairly straightforward, there are over 16,000 bills introduced eachyear, of which, about 2000 are passed by both houses and roughly 1600 are enacted intolaw. Therefore, you can see that there is a rather sporty course ahead of us, but becauseof our work last session, coupled with the work we did during the summer and fall, we arequite optimistic for a successful conclusion this year.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS
As ordered by the by-laws of the New York State Council of Professional Geologists(NYSCPG), the 1998 Directors, under the direction of the Nominating Committee, herebysubmit to all Members this Notice of Annual Meeting of Members. The purpose of thismeeting is to elect the 1999 NYSCPG Board of Directors.
The Directors provide leadership to the Corporation and staff the various standingcommittees. In addition, the officers of the Corporation are elected annually by the Boardof Directors at its meeting held immediately after the Meeting of Members.
At this time, it is appropriate to provide brief biographies for some of lastyear’s Directors. Each has expressed a willingness to serve as Director for 1999, ifelected. Also, in addition to this group of returning Directors, new nominees to the Boardare most welcome and strongly encouraged to come forward at the Annual Meeting and throwtheir hat into the ring, as vacancies on the Board are anticipated.
Date: Saturday, February 20, 1999
Hour: 11:30 am
Place: New York State Museum, Concourse Level, Meeting Room A, Albany, NY
(Buffet lunch is available for $8 per person; please RSVP Bill
Kelly by 2/16/99.
Special Note- the Annual Members Meeting also coincides with
a Gem and Mineral Showat the State Museum!)
At the Annual Meeting of Members, Directors shall be elected by the affirmative vote ofthe members represented at the meeting. Each active member is entitled to vote and mayvote at the meeting in person, or by proxy. If you wish to vote but cannot attend theMembers Meeting in person, please fill out the attached proxy and send to:
William Kelly, NYSCPG President
New York State Geologic Survey
3140 Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230
(518) 474-7559; fax (518) 473-8496
e-mail: wkelly@mail.nysed.gov
BAPG Meetings
FEB 17: BAPG: Monthly meeting, Little White House Restaurant, 5877 Main Street,Williamsville, NY. Speaker and Topic TBA.
MAR 20-21: Buffalo Geological Society's 31st Annual GEM-MINERAL-FOSSIL SHOW at the ErieCounty Fairgrounds in Hamburg, NY.
February 11, 1999: Mr. Kevin M. Bernstein, Bond, Schoeneck & King, LLP; Topic: Theprofessional relationship between geologists, engineers and attorneys; also Student PosterSession with Tully Landslide update from Dr. Bill Kappel, USGS.
March 11, 1999: Technical Presentations - "Practical Considerations for WellDesign, Installation, and Development" by Bill Morrow,
Parratt-Wolff, Inc. and "A New Method in PCB, Dioxin and PAH screeningtechniques" by Columbia Analytical Services.
April 8, 1999: Onondaga Lake Update - Speakers TBA.
May 13, 1999: Mr. Bob Preyer, MOST: A Walking tour of downtown Syracuse describing thegeologic origins of local buildings and stone work.
February 17, 1999: Dr. Mike Gaffey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Topic: Geology ofAsteroids.
March 17, 1999: Speaker and Topics TBA.
April 21, 1999: Dr. Jun Abrajano, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Topic:Environmental Forensics.
May 19, 1999: Third Annual Technical Symposium.
Long Island Geologists Spring Meetings:
Thursday March 4, 1998: Nicholas K. Coch, School of Earth and Environmental SciencesQueens College, C.U.N.Y. Topic: Are Long Island's Beaches All Washed Up? -Are We Ready forthe "Big One". Cocktails 6:30 p.m.: Dinner 7:00 p.m.: Presentation 8:30 p.m. atNOTE! NEW MEETING PLACE! Sports Plus Event Center, 110 New Moriches Road, Lake Grove.Reservations required by Tuesday, March 2, 1999. Cash bar. Cost is $25.00 includingdinner.
The 1938 Long Island-New England Hurricane, perhaps the only "Big One" in theU.S. in this century, devastated the Northeast Region sixty years ago. Research on recenthurricanes, and detailed knowledge of the 1938 storm, now allow us to predict what theeffects of a major hurricane landfall will be on our region in the future. Storms,anthropogenic alterations of the shoreline, development practices and a rising sea levelhave resulted in major erosion of Long Island's beaches. Coastal areas are now morevulnerable to an expected increase in both nor'easter storms and hurricanes in the comingdecade(s). Research in Western Long Island has lowered major northeast hurricane landfallfrequencies from the traditional 100-125 to 75-90 years. The "Big One" is almostdue. Will we be ready?
Companies and agencies may sponsor and host geology majors to LONG ISLAND GEOLOGISTSDinners. If you would like to sponsor a geology student, please call Gil Hanson(516-632-8210) for information, or pay for and note that you are supporting a student onyour registration form. Web address http://pbisotopes.ess.sunysb.edu/lig/
Call for Papers for Sixth Conference on "Geology of Long Island and MetropolitanNew York" Saturday April 24, 1999 at SUNY Stony Brook Deadline for submission oftitles is February 1, 1999. Presentations may be oral, poster or abstract only. Deadlinefor submission of abstracts is March 1, 1999.
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