2023 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.
(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.