Bill Text: NY S03337 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 19-1)

Status: (Passed) 2019-11-04 - SIGNED CHAP.442 [S03337 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S03337-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          3337
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    February 5, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced by Sens. GAUGHRAN, LAVALLE -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
        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-g to read as follows:
     3    § 214-g. 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.
    22    (e)  "Source of water supply" means any groundwater aquifer or waterc-
    23  ourse from which water  is taken either periodically or continuously for
    24  drinking, culinary or food-processing purposes, or which has been desig-
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03302-02-9
        S. 3337                             2
     1  nated for present or future use as a source of water supply for domestic
     2  or municipal purposes.
     3    (f)  "Plant  intake"  means  the  works or structures at the head of a
     4  conduit through which water is diverted from a source  of  water  supply
     5  into the treatment plant by a public water supplier.
     6    (g)  "Well"  means any excavation used for obtaining water by a public
     7  water supplier.
     8    (h) "Raw water" means water immediately before the first or only point
     9  of disinfection or other treatment.
    10    2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section two hundred  fourteen  or
    11  two hundred fourteen-c of this article, or any other provision of law to
    12  the contrary, an action to recover damages for injury to property owned,
    13  managed  or  operated  by  a  public water supplier or a wholesale water
    14  supplier resulting from the presence of a contaminant  in  a  source  of
    15  water  supply shall be commenced within three years of the latest of any
    16  of the following:
    17    (a) the detection of a contaminant in the raw water of  each  well  or
    18  plant  intake sampling point in excess of any notification level, action
    19  level, maximum contaminant level,  or  maximum  contaminant  level  goal
    20  established  by  the commissioner of health, the department of health or
    21  the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that contaminant;
    22    (b) the last wrongful act by any person  whose  conduct  substantially
    23  contributed to the presence of a contaminant in a source of water supply
    24  or the raw water of each well or plant intake sampling point; or
    25    (c) the date the contaminant is last detected in the raw water of each
    26  well or plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level,
    27  action  level,  maximum  contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level
    28  goal established by the commissioner of health, the department of health
    29  or the United States Environmental Protection Agency  for  that  contam-
    30  inant.
    31    3.  This  three-year  period shall apply   to each well and each plant
    32  intake for each contaminant separately, and the expiration of the three-
    33  year period at one well or plant intake shall not affect the  three-year
    34  period for another well or plant intake.
    35    4.  Nothing  in  this  section  shall  abridge or limit a public water
    36  supplier's or a wholesale water supplier's right to bring an  action  to
    37  abate an imminent threat of contamination of any well or plant intake or
    38  to recover as damages the costs of such abatement.
    39    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.