N.Y. Navigation Law § 172: Definitions

§ 172. Definitions. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise,

the following terms shall have the following meanings:

1. "Administrator" means the chief executive, within the department of

audit and control, of the New York environmental protection and spill

compensation fund;

2. "Barrel" means forty-two United States gallons, or 159.9 liters, at

sixty degrees fahrenheit;

2-a. "Biological additives" means microbiological cultures, enzymes,

or nutrient additives that are deliberately introduced into a petroleum

discharge for the specific purpose of encouraging biodegradation to

mitigate the effects of the discharge.

3. "Claim" means, for purposes of part three of this article, any

claim of the fund or any claim by an injured person, who is not

responsible for the discharge, seeking compensation for cleanup and

removal costs incurred or damages sustained as a result of a petroleum

discharge;

3-a. "Burning agents" means additives that, through physical or

chemical means, improve the combustibility of the materials to which

they are applied.

3-b. "Chemical agents" means generally those elements, compounds or

mixtures that coagulate, disperse, dissolve, emulsify, foam, neutralize,

precipitate, reduce, solubilize, oxidize, concentrate, congeal, entrap,

fix, make the pollutant mass more rigid or viscous, or otherwise

facilitate the mitigation of deleterious effects or removal of the

pollutant or petroleum from the water.

4. "Cleanup and removal" means the (a) containment or attempted

containment of a discharge, (b) removal or attempted removal of a

discharge or, (c) taking of reasonable measures to prevent or mitigate

damages to the public health, safety, or welfare, including but not

limited to, public and private property, shorelines, beaches, surface

waters, water columns and bottom sediments, soils and other affected

property, including wildlife and other natural resources;

5. "Cleanup and removal costs" means all costs associated with the

cleanup and removal of a discharge including relocation costs pursuant

to section one hundred seventy-seven-a of this article incurred by the

state or its political subdivisions or their agents or any person with

approval of the department;

6. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the department of

environmental conservation, unless otherwise indicated;

6-a. "Containment boom" means a floating or stationary device composed

of plastic, natural or synthetic materials which can be mechanically

extended over water or permanently stationed over water for the purposes

of containing floating petroleum, solid objects or other pollutants

within or outside a particular area;

7. "Department" means the department of environmental conservation,

unless otherwise indicated;

8. "Discharge" means any intentional or unintentional action or

omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping,

pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping of petroleum into the waters of

the state or onto lands from which it might flow or drain into said

waters, or into waters outside the jurisdiction of the state when damage

may result to the lands, waters or natural resources within the

jurisdiction of the state;

8-a. "Dispersant" means chemical agents that emulsify, disperse, or

solubilize petroleum into the water column or promote the surface

spreading of petroleum slicks to facilitate dispersal of the petroleum

into the water column.

9. "Fund" means the New York environmental protection and spill

compensation fund;

10. "License fee period" means every calendar month on the basis of

which the licensee is required to report under this article;

11. "Major facility" includes but is not limited to any refinery,

storage or transfer terminal, pipeline, deep water port, drilling

platform or any appurtenance related to any of the preceding that is

used or is capable of being used to refine, produce, store, handle,

transfer, process or transport petroleum. A vessel shall be considered a

major facility only when petroleum is transferred between vessels. A

vessel that would not otherwise be considered a major facility shall not

be considered a major facility based solely upon its rendering of care,

assistance or advice consistent with the national contingency plan or as

otherwise directed by the federal on-scene coordinator or by the

commissioner or his designee, in response to a discharge of petroleum

into or upon the navigable waters. Facilities with total combined

above-ground or buried storage capacity of less than four hundred

thousand gallons are not major facilities for the purposes of this

article;

12. "Natural resources" means all land, fish, shellfish, wildlife,

biota, air, waters and other such resources;

13. "Owner" or "operator" means with respect to a vessel, any person

owning, operating or chartering by demise such vessel; with respect to

any major facility, any person owning such facility, or operating it by

lease, contract or other form of agreement; with respect to abandoned or

derelict major facilities, the person who owned or operated such

facility immediately prior to such abandonment, or the owner at the time

of discharge;

14. "Person" means public or private corporations, companies,

associations, societies, firms, partnerships, joint stock companies,

individuals, the United States, the state of New York and any of its

political subdivisions or agents;

15. "Petroleum" means oil or petroleum of any kind and in any form

including, but not limited to, oil, petroleum, fuel oil, oil sludge, oil

refuse, oil mixed with other wastes and crude oils, gasoline and

kerosene;

15-a. "Petroleum-bearing vessel" means any vessel transporting

petroleum in commercial quantities as cargo or any vessel constructed or

adapted for the carriage of petroleum in bulk;

15-b. "Sinking agents" means additives applied to petroleum discharges

to sink floating pollutants below the water surface.

15-c. "Surface collecting agents" means chemical agents that form a

surface film to control the layer thickness of petroleum.

15-d. "Tank vessel" means a vessel that is constructed or adapted to

carry, or that carries, petroleum in bulk as cargo or cargo residue, and

that:

(a) is a vessel of the United States;

(b) operates on the waters of the state of New York; or

(c) transfers petroleum in a place subject to the jurisdiction of the

of the state of New York.

16. "Transfer" means onloading or offloading between major facilities

and vessels or vessels and major facilities, and from vessel to vessel

or major facility to major facility;

17. "Vessel" means every description, of watercraft or other

contrivance that is practically capable of being used as a means of

commercial transportation of petroleum upon the water, whether or not

self-propelled; and

18. "Waters" means the ocean and its estuaries to the seaward limit of

the state's jurisdiction, and all lakes, springs, streams and bodies of

surface or groundwater, whether natural or artificial, within the

boundaries of this state. Provided, however, that for purposes of this

definition, waters of the state adjacent to Long Island Sound are to be

strictly construed to effectuate only the provisions of this article.