N.Y. Civil Practice Law & Rules § 214-h: Certain actions by public water suppliers to recover damages for injury to property

§ 214-h. Certain actions by public water suppliers to recover damages

for injury to property. 1. In this section:

(a) "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological or

radiological substance or matter in water and includes but is not

limited to an emerging contaminant listed pursuant to section eleven

hundred twelve of the public health law.

(b) "Person" means an individual, corporation, public corporation,

company, association, partnership, or entity of the state or federal

government.

(c) "Public water supplier" means a person that owns, manages or

operates a community, noncommunity or nontransient noncommunity water

system that provides water to the public for human consumption through

pipes or other constructed conveyances, if such system has at least five

service connections or regularly serves an average of at least

twenty-five individuals daily at least sixty days out of the year.

(d) "Wholesale water supplier" means a person that owns, manages or

operates a public water system that treats a source of water supply as

necessary to produce finished water and then delivers some or all of

that finished water to a public water supplier.

(e) "Source of water supply" means any groundwater aquifer or other

source from which water is taken either periodically or continuously for

drinking, kitchen, cooking or food-processing purposes, or which has

been designated for present or future use as a source of water supply

for domestic or municipal purposes.

(f) "Plant intake" means the works or structures at the head of a

conduit through which water is diverted from a source of water supply

into the treatment plant by a public water supplier.

(g) "Well" means any excavation used for obtaining water by a public

water supplier.

(h) "Raw water" means water immediately before the first or only point

of disinfection or other treatment.

(i) "Emerging contaminant" shall mean any physical, chemical,

microbiological or radiological substance that has ever been or ever

will be identified or listed pursuant to paragraph a or b of subdivision

three of section eleven hundred twelve of the public health law or that

has ever been or ever will be required to be identified or listed as an

emerging contaminant pursuant to paragraph c of subdivision three of

section eleven hundred twelve of the public health law or that is

identified or listed as an emerging contaminant pursuant to any other

law.

2. Notwithstanding any other law that provides for a shorter

limitations period, any civil claim or cause of action brought by a

public water supplier or wholesale water supplier against any person to

recover damages for injury to property owned, managed or operated by a

public water supplier or a wholesale water supplier resulting from the

presence of a contaminant in a source of water supply shall be commenced

within three years of the latest of any of the following:

(a) the detection of a contaminant in the raw water of each well or

plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level, action

level, maximum contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level goal

established by the commissioner of health, the department of health or

the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that contaminant;

(b) the last wrongful act by any person whose conduct contributed to

the presence of a contaminant in a source of water supply or the raw

water of each well or plant intake sampling point; or

(c) the date the contaminant is last detected in the raw water of each

well or plant intake sampling point in excess of any notification level,

action level, maximum contaminant level, or maximum contaminant level

goal established by the commissioner of health, the department of health

or the United States Environmental Protection Agency for that

contaminant.

3. This three-year period shall apply to each well and each plant

intake for each contaminant separately, and the expiration of the

three-year period at one well or plant intake shall not affect the

three-year period for another well or plant intake.

4. Nothing in this section shall abridge or limit a public water

supplier's or a wholesale water supplier's right to bring an action to

abate an imminent threat of contamination of any well or plant intake or

to recover as damages the costs of such abatement.

5. Any action, civil claim, or cause of action involving an emerging

contaminant that is barred as of the effective date of this subdivision

because the applicable period of limitation has expired is hereby

revived, and such action, civil claim, or cause of action thereon may be

commenced and prosecuted provided such action, civil claim, or cause of

action is commenced either before or within one year and six months

following the effective date of this subdivision.