NEW YORK ENVIRONMENT CHIEF URGES PASSAGE OF PATAKI SUPERFUND BILL

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Erin Crotty urged the state's legislature to pass Gov. George Pataki's (R) controversial Superfund Reform legislation, which environmentalists claim weakens state cleanup standards and provisions forcing industry to pay for cleanups. Pataki introduced the legislation earlier this year, and members of the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate have also introduced competing bills, which sources say will lead to contentious battles between the two houses of the legislature and the governor over the...