What's happening
This bill allows public and wholesale water suppliers three years to sue for property damage caused by water contaminants.
Why it matters
Gives water suppliers more time to sue polluters. By extending the statute of limitations to three years from the date contamination is detected or last present, the bill recognizes that water contamination is often discovered long after the pollution occurs, allowing water suppliers to hold polluters accountable even if the harm is not immediately obvious.
Covers a broad range of contaminants and suppliers. The bill’s definitions include all types of contaminants (chemical, biological, radiological, etc.) and apply to both public and wholesale water suppliers, making it relevant for a wide variety of water systems and pollution scenarios, not just large municipal systems.
Allows separate lawsuits for each well or intake. The three-year window applies independently to each contaminated well or plant intake and for each contaminant, ensuring that discovering contamination in one part of a system doesn’t limit the ability to seek damages for problems found later in another part.
Protects the right to address imminent threats. Water suppliers retain the right to take immediate legal action to stop or recover costs for addressing urgent contamination threats, so the bill doesn’t delay or restrict rapid response to new pollution events.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Extend Water Lawsuit Deadline
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Signed chap.442
- Delivered to governor
- Returned to senate
- Passed assembly
- Ordered to third reading cal.521
- Substituted for A5477C
- Referred to codes
- Returned to assembly
- Repassed senate
- Amended on third reading 3337c
- Vote reconsidered - restored to third reading
- Returned to senate
Show 11 earlier actions
- Recalled from assembly
- Referred to judiciary
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 61–0
- Amended on third reading 3337b
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.305
- Print number 3337a
- Amend and recommit to judiciary
- Referred to judiciary
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Extend Water Lawsuit Deadline
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Fred Thiele
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3337--C Cal. No. 305
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 5, 2019
Introduced by Sens. GAUGHRAN, LAVALLE, BROOKS, HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN, KAMIN- SKY, KAPLAN, METZGER, SERRANO, SKOUFIS, THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary -- committee discharged, bill amended,… Show allHide
Introduced by Sens. GAUGHRAN, LAVALLE, BROOKS, HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN, KAMIN- SKY, KAPLAN, METZGER, SERRANO, SKOUFIS, THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading -- passed by Senate and delivered to the Assembly, recalled, vote reconsidered, restored to third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the statute of limitations for public water suppliers and wholesale water suppliers to commence an action for injury to property
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The civil practice law and rules is amended by adding a new section 214-h to read as follows:
§ 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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03302-14-9
S. 3337--C 2
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 threeyear 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.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the statute of limitations for public water suppliers and wholesale water suppliers to commence an action for injury to property
Purpose
Relates to the statute of limitations for public water suppliers to commence an action for injury to property.
Summary of provisions
This bill amends the Civil Practice Law and Rules by adding a new Section 214-h to provide for a three-year statute of limitations for public water suppliers and wholesale water suppliers to commence an action for injury to property resulting from the contamination of the public water supplier's source of water supply. Provides for the defi- nition of specific terms as used in this Section: (a) Contaminant; (b)person; (c) public water supplier; (d) wholesale water supplier; (e)source of water supply; (f) plant intake; (g) well and (h) raw water.
Read the full memo (604 words)
Justification
Parts m and r of Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2017 amended the Public Health Law by adding Sections 1112 and 1113 requiring the Commissioner of the Department of Health to promulgate regulations regarding emerging contaminants after recommendations from a new drinking water advisory council. These new drinking regulations will result in new and signif- icant costs for public water suppliers, their customers and the state. Public water suppliers can mitigate these costs through litigation against polluters who caused or who are responsible for the contam- ination of sources of water supply. However, Civil Practice Law and Rules Section 214, 214-c and court rulings interpreting these statutes have made it difficult for public water suppliers to overcome statute of limitations defenses raised by polluters in many cases.
This bill would clarify the statute of limitations for public and whole- sale water suppliers and makes it clear that an action 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 following events: (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 contam- inant level, or maximum contaminant level goal established by the Commissioner of the Department 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 substantially 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 the contaminant. It also provides that the 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.
The bill further makes it clear that nothing shall abridge or limit a public or 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.
Legislative history
New Legislation, 2019
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.