Bill Text: NY S03337 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
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-Amended.html
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-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3337--B Cal. No. 305 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 5, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sens. GAUGHRAN, LAVALLE, BROOKS, HOYLMAN, KAMINSKY, KAPLAN, METZGER, SKOUFIS, THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported favorably from said commit- tee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading 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. Certain actions by public water suppliers to recover damages 4 for injury to property. 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. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03302-09-9S. 3337--B 2 1 (d) "Wholesale water supplier" means a person that owns, manages or 2 operates a public water system that treats a source of water supply as 3 necessary to produce finished water and then delivers some or all of 4 that finished water to a public water supplier. 5 (e) "Source of water supply" means any groundwater aquifer or waterc- 6 ourse from which water is taken either periodically or continuously for 7 drinking, culinary or food-processing purposes, or which has been desig- 8 nated for present or future use as a source of water supply for domestic 9 or municipal purposes. 10 (f) "Plant intake" means the works or structures at the head of a 11 conduit through which water is diverted from a source of water supply 12 into the treatment plant by a public water supplier. 13 (g) "Well" means any excavation used for obtaining water by a public 14 water supplier. 15 (h) "Raw water" means water immediately before the first or only point 16 of disinfection or other treatment. 17 2. Notwithstanding any provision of any other law, any civil claim or 18 cause of action brought by a public water supplier or wholesale water 19 supplier against any person alleging intentional, negligent or other 20 wrongful acts or omissions by a person to recover damages for injury to 21 property owned, managed or operated by a public water supplier or a 22 wholesale water supplier resulting from the presence of a contaminant in 23 a source of water supply shall be commenced within three years of the 24 latest of any of the following: 25 (a) the detection of a contaminant in the raw water of each well or 26 plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level, action 27 level, maximum contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level goal 28 established by the commissioner of health, the department of health or 29 the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that contaminant; 30 (b) the last wrongful act by any person whose conduct substantially 31 contributed to the presence of a contaminant in a source of water supply 32 or the raw water of each well or plant intake sampling point; or 33 (c) the date the contaminant is last detected in the raw water of each 34 well or plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level, 35 action level, maximum contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level 36 goal established by the commissioner of health, the department of health 37 or the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that contam- 38 inant. 39 3. This three-year period shall apply to each well and each plant 40 intake for each contaminant separately, and the expiration of the three- 41 year period at one well or plant intake shall not affect the three-year 42 period for another well or plant intake. 43 4. Nothing in this section shall abridge or limit a public water 44 supplier's or a wholesale water supplier's right to bring an action to 45 abate an imminent threat of contamination of any well or plant intake or 46 to recover as damages the costs of such abatement. 47 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
