Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF, REF - Sag Harbor) announced the unanimous passage of his legislation in the Assembly on June 4^th that clarifies the Civil Practice Law and Rules regarding the statute of limitations for public water suppliers to commence an action against polluters responsible for contaminating our drinking water, A.5477-C (same as S.3337-C by Senator James Gaughran).

Current law has interpreted the statute of limitations as beginning three years after the contamination occurred, as opposed to being detected. This bill makes clear that the statute of limitations for public and wholesale water suppliers 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 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 contaminant 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.

Assemblyman Thiele stated, “The State must be equipped with every tool and resource necessary to address New York’s current water quality crisis. This bill will go a long way in holding polluters financially accountable for endangering our public drinking water supply with new emerging contaminants. Closing this loophole that has allowed polluters to evade responsibility has been one of my top legislative priorities for the 2019 Legislative Session. I was pleased to be a part of this successful effort.”

This legislation has already passed the Senate and will be sent to the Governor for his executive action before the end of the year.