§ 27-1327. Recovery of response costs and natural resource damages.

1. Each responsible person shall be strictly liable, jointly and
severally, for all response costs and for all natural resource damages
resulting from the disposal of hazardous waste at an inactive hazardous
waste disposal site. The commissioner may request the attorney general
commence an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to recover the
response costs and/or natural resource damages. The commissioner shall
prioritize recovering response costs and natural resource damages at
sites placed in classification 1 or 2, as described in clauses (i) and
(ii) of subparagraph one of paragraph b of subdivision two of section
27-1305 of this title, that are located in disadvantaged communities.

2. A determination or assessment of natural resource damages for the
purposes of this section made or adopted by the commissioner in
accordance with any applicable regulations promulgated under section
27-1315 of this title or under section 9651(c) of title 42 of the United
States Code shall have the force and effect of a rebuttable presumption
on behalf of the commissioner in any judicial proceeding.

3. In an action to recover response costs and/or natural resource
damages, the commissioner may also seek civil penalties under section
71-2705 of this chapter.

4. All amounts received to satisfy liability for natural resource
damages shall be credited to the department's natural resource damages
fund to be used exclusively to reimburse the reasonable costs of
assessing injury, destruction, and/or loss resulting from the disposal
of hazardous waste at the site for which the natural resource damages
were recovered and for the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement,
and/or acquisition of equivalent natural resources. Provided that any
such restoration, rehabilitation, replacement and/or acquisition shall
prioritize, to the maximum extent practicable, the natural resources of
the site for which the damages were recovered.

5. The state shall have an environmental lien for all response costs
incurred by the state and for all natural resource damages for which a
judicial determination of liability has been made upon such real
property located within the state:

(a) owned by a person liable to the state for such response costs
and/or natural resource damages under this title at the time a notice of
environmental lien is filed; and

(b) upon which the disposal of hazardous wastes occurred.

6. An environmental lien shall attach when:

(a) response costs are incurred by the state and/or a judicial
judgment of liability for natural resource damages is entered;

(b) the responsible person fails to pay such costs within ninety days
after a written demand therefor by the department is mailed by certified
or registered mail, return receipt requested, and/or fails to pay such
natural resource damages within ninety days after entry of judgment; and

(c) a notice of environmental lien is filed by the department as
provided in paragraph (a) of subdivision ten of this section; provided,
however, that a copy of the notice of environmental lien is served upon
the owner of the real property subject to the environmental lien within
thirty days of such filing in accordance with the provisions of section
eleven of the lien law.

7. (a) An environmental lien shall continue against the real property
until:

(i) the claim or judgment against the person referred to in
subdivision one of this section for response costs and/or natural
resource damages is satisfied or becomes unenforceable;

(ii) the lien is released by the commissioner pursuant to this
subdivision;

(iii) the lien is discharged by payment of monies into court; or

(iv) the lien is otherwise vacated by court order.

(b) Upon the occurrence of any event under subparagraphs (i) through
(iv) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision, except where the lien is
vacated by court order, the commissioner shall execute the release of an
environmental lien and file the release as provided in subdivision ten
of this section. The commissioner may release an environmental lien
where:

(i) a legally enforceable agreement satisfactory to the commissioner
has been executed relating to the response costs and/or natural resource
damages that are the subject of the lien; or reimbursing the state for
such response costs and/or natural resource damages; or an owner or
operator of the site subject to the lien agrees to perform remedial
work, site management, or other in-kind services of sufficient value to
the commissioner; or

(ii) the attachment or enforcement of the environmental lien is
determined by the commissioner not to be in the public interest.

8. An environmental lien is subject to the rights of any other person,
including an owner, purchaser, holder of a mortgage or security
interest, or judgment lien creditor, whose interest is perfected before
a lien notice has been filed as provided in subdivision ten of this
section.

9. A notice of environmental lien shall state:

(a) that the lienor is the state of New York;

(b) the name of the record owner of the real property on which the
environmental lien has attached;

(c) the real property subject to the lien, with a description thereof
sufficient for identification;

(d) that the real property described in the notice is the property
upon which a disposal of hazardous wastes occurred and that response
costs have been incurred by the lienor and/or that natural resource
damages have been judicially determined to be due to the lienor as a
result of such disposal;

(e) that the owner is potentially liable for response costs and/or
subject to a judgment for natural resource damages pursuant to this
title; and

(f) that an environmental lien has attached to the described real
property.

10. (a) A notice of environmental lien shall be filed in the clerk's
office of the county where the property is situated. If such property is
situated in two or more counties, the notice of environmental lien shall
be filed in the office of the clerk of each of such counties. The notice
of lien shall be indexed by the county clerk in accordance with the
provisions of section ten of the lien law. The notice of lien shall be
served upon the owner of the real property subject to the lien in
accordance with the provisions of section eleven of the lien law.

(b) A release of an environmental lien shall be filed in the clerk's
office of each county where the notice of environmental lien was filed
and shall be indexed in the manner prescribed for indexing environmental
liens.

11. An environmental lien may be enforced against the property
specified in the notice of environmental lien, and an environmental lien
may be vacated or discharged, as prescribed in article three of the lien
law; provided, however, that nothing in this article or in article three
of the lien law shall affect the right of the state to bring an action
to recover response costs and/or natural resource damages under section
one hundred seven of the federal comprehensive environmental response,
compensation, and liability act (42 U.S.C. § 9607 et seq).

12. Amounts received by the commissioner to satisfy all or part of an
environmental lien for response costs shall be deposited in the
department's hazardous waste remedial fund and amounts received to
satisfy all or part of an environmental lien for natural resource
damages shall be deposited in the department's natural resource damages
fund.

13. Environmental windfall liens. (a) A bona fide prospective
purchaser whose liability under this title and/or 42 U.S.C. § 9607 et
seq. arises solely from being considered an owner or operator of such
site shall not be subject to this subdivision as long as the bona fide
prospective purchaser does not impede the performance of a response
action or natural resource restoration.

(b) If there are unrecovered response costs incurred by the department
at an inactive hazardous waste disposal site for which an owner or
operator of the site is not liable by reason of paragraph (a) of this
subdivision, and if each of the conditions described in paragraph (c) of
this subdivision are met, the department shall have an environmental
windfall lien on the facility, or may by agreement with the owner or
operator, obtain from the owner or operator a lien on any other property
or other assurance of payment satisfactory to the department, for the
unrecovered response costs.

(c) The conditions referred to in paragraph (b) of this subdivision
are the following:

(i) A response action for which there are unrecovered costs of the
department is carried out at the inactive hazardous waste disposal site.

(ii) The response action increases the fair market value of the site
above the fair market value of the site before the response action was
initiated.

(d) An environmental windfall lien under paragraph (b) of this
subdivision:

(i) shall be in an amount not to exceed the lesser of:

(A) the incremental increase in fair market value of the property,
above the fair market value before the response action was initiated,
attributable to the response action at the time of a sale or other
disposition of the property; or

(B) any unrecovered response costs not subject to an environmental
lien attached to the property pursuant to subdivision five of this
section;

(ii) shall arise at the time at which costs are first incurred by the
department with respect to a response action at the site; and

(iii) shall be subject to the requirements of subdivisions seven,
eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve of this section.

14. (a) Contribution. Any person may seek contribution from any other
person who is liable or potentially liable under this title during or
following any civil action under this section. Such claims shall be
brought in accordance with this section and the civil practice law and
rules, and shall be governed by New York state law. In resolving
contribution claims, the court may allocate response costs among liable
parties using such equitable factors as the court determines are
appropriate. Nothing in this subdivision shall diminish the right of any
person to bring an action for contribution in the absence of a civil
action under this section.

(b) Settlement. A person who has resolved its liability to the state
in an administrative or judicially approved settlement shall not be
liable for claims for contribution regarding matters addressed in the
settlement. Such settlement does not discharge any of the other
potentially liable persons unless its terms so provide, but it reduces
the potential liability of the others by the amount of the settlement.

(c) Persons not party to settlement. (i) If the state has obtained
less than complete relief from a person who has resolved its liability
to the state in an administrative or judicially approved settlement, the
state may bring an action against any person who has not so resolved its
liability.

(ii) A person who has resolved its liability to the state for some or
all of a response action or for some or all of the costs of such action
in an administrative or judicially approved settlement may seek
contribution from any person who is not party to a settlement referred
to in paragraph (b) of this subdivision.

(iii) In any action under this paragraph, the rights of any person who
has resolved its liability to the state shall be subordinate to the
rights of the state.

15. (a) Limitation on claims. No new action under this title may be
commenced for natural resource damages or response costs for an inactive
hazardous waste site that was the subject of any previous action
commenced prior to the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two
thousand twenty-five which added this subdivision, regardless of: the
venue in which such previous action was commenced; the statutory or
common law source of such action, including settlement agreements; the
completeness or totality of permissible recovery of such action; or the
finality of any such action.

(b) Actions for natural resource damages. Except as provided in
paragraphs (d) and (e) of this subdivision, an initial action under this
title for natural resource damages that occurs after the effective date
of the chapter of the laws of two thousand twenty-five which added this
subdivision, shall be commenced within three years after the later of
the following:

(i) the date of the discovery of the loss and its connection with the
release in question; or

(ii) for any facility listed on the federal National Priorities List,
any site listed on the New York state registry of inactive hazardous
waste disposal sites, or any site at which a remedial action under this
chapter is otherwise scheduled: the date of completion of the remedial
action, excluding operation and maintenance activities.

(c) Actions for response costs. An initial action for recovery of
response costs that occurs after the effective date of the chapter of
the laws of two thousand twenty-five which added this subdivision shall
be commenced:

(i) for a removal action, as defined by the department in regulation,
within three years after completion of the removal action, except that
such cost recovery action shall be commenced within six years after a
determination that continued response action is otherwise appropriate
and consistent with the remedial action to be taken for continued
response action; and

(ii) for a remedial action, as defined by the department in
regulation, within six years after initiation of physical on-site
construction of the remedial action, except that, if the remedial action
is initiated within three years after the completion of the removal
action, costs incurred in the removal action may be recovered in the
cost recovery action brought under this subparagraph.

(d) Declaratory judgment. In any such action described in this
subdivision, the court shall enter a declaratory judgment on liability
for response costs or natural resource damages that will be binding on
any subsequent action or actions under this title to recover further
response costs or damages. A subsequent action or actions under this
section for further response costs at the facility or site may be
maintained at any time during the response action, but must be commenced
no later than three years after the date of completion of all response
action. Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, an action may be
commenced under this section for recovery of costs at any time after
such costs have been incurred.

(e) Limitations on actions. No action for contribution for any
response costs or natural resource damages may be commenced more than
three years after:

(i) the date of judgment in any action under this section for recovery
of such costs or damages; or

(ii) the date of a judicially approved settlement with respect to such
costs or damages.