Environmental Statutes, Codes, Regulations and Related Materials
N.Y. Navigation Law Sec. 172. Definitions Sections 7 – 14
Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
7. “Department” means the department of environmental conservation, unless otherwise indicated;
8. “Discharge” means any intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping of petroleum into the waters of the state or onto lands from which it might flow or drain to said waters, or into waters outside the jurisdiction of the state when damage may result to the lands, waters or natural resources within the jurisdiction of the state;
8-a. “Dispersant” means chemical agents that emulsify, disperse, or solubilize petroleum into the water column or promote the surface spreading of petroleum slicks to facilitate dispersal of the petroleum into the water column.
9. “Fund” means the New York environmental protection and spill compensation fund;
10. “License fee period” means every calendar month on the basis of which the licensee is required to report under this article;
11. “Major facility” includes but is not limited to any refinery, storage or transfer terminal, pipeline, deep water port, drilling platform or any appurtenance related to any of the preceding that is used or is capable of being used to refine, produce, store, handle, transfer, process or transport petroleum. A vessel shall be considered a major facility only when petroleum is transferred between vessels. A vessel that would not otherwise be considered a major facility shall not be considered a major facility based solely upon its rendering of care, assistance or advice consistent with the national contingency plan or as otherwise directed by the federal on-scene coordinator or by the commissioner or his designee, in response to a discharge of petroleum into or upon the navigable waters. Facilities with total combined above-ground or buried storage capacity of less than four hundred thousand gallons are not major facilities for the purposes of this article;
12. “Natural resources” means all land, fish, shellfish, wildlife, biota, air, waters and other such resources;
13. “Owner” or “operator” means with respect to a vessel, any person owning, operating or chartering by demise such vessel; with respect to any major facility, any person owning such facility, or operating it by lease, contract or other form of agreement; with respect to abandoned or derelict major facilities, the person who owned or operated such facility immediately prior to such abandonment, or the owner at the time of discharge;
14. “Person” means public or private corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms, partnerships, joint stock companies, individuals, the United States, the state of New York and any of its political subdivisions or agents;
