NY CPLR § 214-H (2021)
2021 New York Laws CVP - Civil Practice Law and Rules Article 2 - Limitations of Time 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.   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.