N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 15-1711: Provisions and conditions of licenses; payment to state treasury of moneys received under this title

§ 15-1711. Provisions and conditions of licenses; payment to state

treasury of moneys received under this title.

1. The term of the license shall not exceed fifty years from its date.

2. The licensee shall agree to accept and abide by the terms and

provisions of title 17 of this article, and to pay to the state the

charge or rental, if any, fixed by the department and reserved in the

license, or as the same may be readjusted pursuant to law.

3. The license shall by reference to maps, plans, and specifications

or otherwise clearly identify and define the improvement or development

to be affected under the license.

4. If the license affects any canal or canal feeder waters, it shall

contain a provision, in substance, reserving to the Commissioner of

Transportation the right at any and all times to enter upon the property

covered by the license, and to do and perform such acts or things,

including the temporary drawing off of the water from the dam or forebay

from which the licensee is drawing water and such interruption in the

supply of water to the licensee, as may be deemed necessary for the

repair, reconstruction or improvement of the canal or any canal works or

structures and that the licensee shall be at all times subject to such

reasonable rules and regulations for the management and maintenance of

the canals and navigation thereof as the Commissioner of Transportation

shall from time to time prescribe; also a provision in substance

reserving to the department the right, on ninety days' written notice to

the licensee, to retake, recapture and resume wholly or in part the use

of the water and other property covered by the license, including all

structures erected upon and improvements to such property, and to

control and limit the manner and extent of use of such water or other

property, whenever in the opinion of the Commissioner of Transportation

or the Legislature, the necessary supply of water for the use of the

canals of the state, or any future alterations or improvements of the

canals, or the safety of the works connected therewith, may render such

resumption, control or limitation necessary; also a provision in

substance reserving to the state the right wholly to abandon or destroy

the canal, dam or works by the erection or construction of which the

surplus water covered by the license is rendered available. In either of

which events, the licensee, if he promptly complies with any and all

lawful directions of the department with respect to the cessation of the

use of water and removal from the premises may recover from the state in

the Court of Claims the damages resulting to him therefrom, but the

damages for improvements on state lands shall not exceed the

reconstruction cost. The damages for which the state shall be liable may

be specified in the license. The state shall not be liable for any

temporary interruption for the repair of or in the operation of the

canal, and in case of a substantial change in the right or privilege

granted, the department, by agreement, may readjust the charge or rental

with the licensee.

5. The license shall contain a provision in substance that if there be

a partial resumption of the use of the water or of the land which is

covered by the license, the licensee, at his option, may continue for

the remainder of the term specified in the license to use the residue of

the water and land covered by the license, under the terms and

conditions of the license, or such modified terms as may be agreed upon,

upon the payment to the state of a revised and readjusted charge or

rental, and that if the licensee refuses to accept or continue the use

of the remaining water and land at the revised and readjusted rental,

the license shall terminate and the licensee shall have his claim for

damages as provided by the preceding subdivision.

6. Except as otherwise provided by law, the terms and provisions of a

license may be altered only by mutual agreement between the department

and the licensee, after publication as provided in subdivision 1 of

section 15-0903 of a notice setting forth the time and place of the

meeting at which the proposal to alter the terms and provisions of the

license will be considered. If by any such agreement the amount of water

available for use by the licensee is curtailed or the privileges and

rights under the license are materially changed, the department may

revise and readjust the rental to be paid.

7. The license may contain a provision to the effect that the licensee

shall furnish to the state, free of charge or upon terms to be fixed as

therein provided, the hydraulic or hydro-electric power required for the

operation or lighting of certain defined state structures, works or

property.

8. The license may also contain a provision in substance, that the

licensee shall obtain the fee simple absolute of, or any lesser interest

in, all property other than that of the state used by him in the

construction of the project.

9. In issuing licenses for a minor part only of a complete project, or

for a complete project of not more than one hundred horsepower capacity,

the department may in its discretion waive such conditions, provisions

and requirements of title 17 of this article, except the license period

of fifty years, as it may deem to be to the public interest to waive

under the circumstances.

10. The department shall pay into the state treasury the moneys

received by it in the course of administering the provisions of title 17

of this article in the manner provided by section 121 of the State

Finance Law.