Bill Text: NY A05477 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Provides that the statute of limitations for public water suppliers and wholesale water suppliers to commence an action for injury to property shall be three years.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 31-8)

Status: (Passed) 2019-11-04 - SIGNED CHAP.442 [A05477 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A05477-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         5477--A
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    February 12, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  THIELE, STERN, LiPETRI, ENGLEBRIGHT, LAVINE,
          D'URSO, MONTESANO, MIKULIN, RAIA, RA,  GOTTFRIED,  COLTON,  ZEBROWSKI,
          McDONOUGH, SCHMITT, DeSTEFANO -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee  on  Judiciary  --  committee  discharged,  bill  amended, ordered
          reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
        AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules,  in  relation  to  the
          statute  of limitations for public water suppliers and wholesale water
          suppliers to commence an action for injury to property
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. The civil practice law and rules is amended by adding a new
     2  section 214-h to read as follows:
     3    §  214-h.  Action  to recover damages for injury to property by public
     4  water supplier. 1. In this section:
     5    (a) "Contaminant" means any  physical,  chemical,  microbiological  or
     6  radiological substance or matter in water and includes but is not limit-
     7  ed  to an emerging contaminant listed pursuant to section eleven hundred
     8  twelve of the public health law.
     9    (b) "Person" means an  individual,  corporation,  public  corporation,
    10  company,  association,  partnership,  or  entity of the state or federal
    11  government.
    12    (c) "Public water supplier" means a person that owns, manages or oper-
    13  ates a community, noncommunity or nontransient noncommunity water system
    14  that provides water to the public for human consumption through pipes or
    15  other constructed conveyances, if such system has at least five  service
    16  connections or regularly serves an average of at least twenty-five indi-
    17  viduals daily at least sixty days out of the year.
    18    (d)  "Wholesale  water  supplier" means a person that owns, manages or
    19  operates a public water system that treats a source of water  supply  as
    20  necessary  to  produce  finished  water and then delivers some or all of
    21  that finished water to a public water supplier.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03302-04-9
        A. 5477--A                          2
     1    (e) "Source of water supply" means any groundwater aquifer or  waterc-
     2  ourse from which water  is taken either periodically or continuously for
     3  drinking, culinary or food-processing purposes, or which has been desig-
     4  nated for present or future use as a source of water supply for domestic
     5  or municipal purposes.
     6    (f)  "Plant  intake"  means  the  works or structures at the head of a
     7  conduit through which water is diverted from a source  of  water  supply
     8  into the treatment plant by a public water supplier.
     9    (g)  "Well"  means any excavation used for obtaining water by a public
    10  water supplier.
    11    (h) "Raw water" means water immediately before the first or only point
    12  of disinfection or other treatment.
    13    2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section two hundred  fourteen  or
    14  two hundred fourteen-c of this article, or any other provision of law to
    15  the contrary, an action to recover damages for injury to property owned,
    16  managed  or  operated  by  a  public water supplier or a wholesale water
    17  supplier resulting from the presence of a contaminant  in  a  source  of
    18  water  supply shall be commenced within three years of the latest of any
    19  of the following:
    20    (a) the detection of a contaminant in the raw water of  each  well  or
    21  plant  intake sampling point in excess of any notification level, action
    22  level, maximum contaminant level,  or  maximum  contaminant  level  goal
    23  established  by  the commissioner of health, the department of health or
    24  the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that contaminant;
    25    (b) the last wrongful act by any person  whose  conduct  substantially
    26  contributed to the presence of a contaminant in a source of water supply
    27  or the raw water of each well or plant intake sampling point; or
    28    (c) the date the contaminant is last detected in the raw water of each
    29  well or plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level,
    30  action  level,  maximum  contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level
    31  goal established by the commissioner of health, the department of health
    32  or the United States Environmental Protection Agency  for  that  contam-
    33  inant.
    34    3.  This  three-year  period shall apply   to each well and each plant
    35  intake for each contaminant separately, and the expiration of the three-
    36  year period at one well or plant intake shall not affect the  three-year
    37  period for another well or plant intake.
    38    4.  Nothing  in  this  section  shall  abridge or limit a public water
    39  supplier's or a wholesale water supplier's right to bring an  action  to
    40  abate an imminent threat of contamination of any well or plant intake or
    41  to recover as damages the costs of such abatement.
    42    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.