Enacts the "New York open water data act"; directs certain agencies, under the leadership of conveners, to identify and integrate key water data sets; provides duties and an annual plan for data to be researched and reported.
A05254 enacts the “New York open water data act,” creating a statewide framework for collecting, standardizing, and publicly sharing water-related information. The bill directs designated “conveners” — Cornell’s New York Water Resources Institute and Stony Brook’s New York Sea Grant — to work with several state and local agencies, including DEC, DOH, Agriculture and Markets, the Canal Corporation, NYC DEP, and the Public Service Commission, to identify key water datasets and establish common standards for how those data are collected, cleaned, and disseminated.
The bill defines “water data” broadly to include streamflow, precipitation, groundwater, water quality, water use, water infrastructure, water rights, water affordability, and related ecological and commercial information. It also contemplates data from private wells collected by government agencies, citizen science sources, and, at the conveners’ discretion, coastal waters used for human activities. The bill requires the agencies to make datasets available through OpenNY, provide GIS mapping where appropriate, and ensure API access for researchers and developers. It also requires annual updates and a yearly report to the governor and legislature describing needs, goals, budgetary resources, and performance metrics.
If enacted, the bill would not create a new regulatory permitting program, but it would impose new coordination, reporting, and open-data obligations on multiple state and local entities. It would require agencies to identify, standardize, and publish water-related datasets, while excluding personal information such as specific addresses and locations. It would also require state-funded water data research to follow the common standards developed under the act, and it would formalize annual planning and interagency collaboration on water data management.
The available voting history shows strong, unanimous support at every recorded stage, including committee votes and final passage in both chambers. The bill advanced without any recorded opposition, suggesting broad agreement that improving access to water data is a useful government transparency and planning measure. No committee transcript was provided, so there is no evidence in the record of substantive floor or committee debate.
There is little visible contention in the available record, as all recorded votes were unanimous. The main policy questions implied by the text are practical rather than ideological: which datasets should be included, how to balance transparency with privacy, how much burden the reporting and standardization requirements will place on agencies, and how to fund the new data infrastructure. The bill also leaves some discretion to the conveners, especially regarding coastal waters and the scope of data integration, which could be a point of administrative concern even though no opposition is shown in the vote history.