Creates the crime of unlawful defilement of a water supply; provides that a person is guilty of such crime when he introduces, places, or causes to be introduced or placed a defiling agent into a water supply; makes definitions; establishes such crime as a class B felony.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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2295--A
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 15, 2013
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Introduced by Sens. BALL, AVELLA -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes -- recommitted
to the Committee on Codes in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to unlawful defilement of a
water supply
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 270.08 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 270.08 Unlawful defilement of a water supply.
4 1. As used in this section:
5 (a) "Water supply" means any public or private transmission facility,
6 treatment facility, source of supply facility, well or reservoir, which
7 provides potable water for residential, commercial, industrial and/or
8 fire service needs.
9 (b) "Defiling agent" means any chemical, biological or radioactive
10 agent or substance, which is capable, when introduced or placed into a
11 water supply, of causing the sickness, physical injury, severe disfig-
12 urement, or death of a human being, or causing irreparable harm to such
13 water supply, or causing a disturbance to the public peace; and shall
14 include any substance which is the by-product of the practice of
15 conducting hydraulic fracturing for the acquisition of natural gas or
16 oil. A defiling agent shall not include a substance which is introduced
17 or placed into a water supply by any municipal or state entity, or which
18 is introduced or placed into a water supply by any agricultural or
19 industrial entity as a result of its ordinary lawful operations.
20 2. A person is guilty of unlawful defilement of a water supply when he
21 or she, as an individual or acting in the course of an industrial prac-
22 tice, intentionally introduces, places, or causes to be introduced or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05826-02-4
S. 2295--A 2
1 placed, into a water supply, a defiling agent with the intent to cause
2 the sickness, physical injury, severe disfigurement or death of another
3 human being, or with the reckless disregard of causing the sickness,
4 physical injury, severe disfigurement or death of another human being,
5 or with the intent to cause irreparable harm to such water supply, or to
6 disturb the public peace.
7 Unlawful defilement of a water supply shall be a class B felony.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
9 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
