N.Y. Navigation Law § 172 (2026)

§ 172. Definitions. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise,
the following terms shall have the following meanings:
  1. "Administrator" means the chief executive, within the department of
audit and control, of the New York environmental protection and spill
compensation fund;
  2. "Barrel" means forty-two United States gallons, or 159.9 liters, at
sixty degrees fahrenheit;
  2-a. "Biological additives" means microbiological cultures, enzymes,
or nutrient additives that are deliberately introduced into a petroleum
discharge for the specific purpose of encouraging biodegradation to
mitigate the effects of the discharge.
  3. "Claim" means, for purposes of part three of this article, any
claim of the fund or any claim by an injured person, who is not
responsible for the discharge, seeking compensation for cleanup and
removal costs incurred or damages sustained as a result of a petroleum
discharge;
  3-a. "Burning agents" means additives that, through physical or
chemical means, improve the combustibility of the materials to which
they are applied.
  3-b. "Chemical agents" means generally those elements, compounds or
mixtures that coagulate, disperse, dissolve, emulsify, foam, neutralize,
precipitate, reduce, solubilize, oxidize, concentrate, congeal, entrap,
fix, make the pollutant mass more rigid or viscous, or otherwise
facilitate the mitigation of deleterious effects or removal of the
pollutant or petroleum from the water.
  4. "Cleanup and removal" means the (a) containment or attempted
containment of a discharge, (b) removal or attempted removal of a
discharge or, (c) taking of reasonable measures to prevent or mitigate
damages to the public health, safety, or welfare, including but not
limited to, public and private property, shorelines, beaches, surface
waters, water columns and bottom sediments, soils and other affected
property, including wildlife and other natural resources;
  5. "Cleanup and removal costs" means all costs associated with the
cleanup and removal of a discharge including relocation costs pursuant
to section one hundred seventy-seven-a of this article incurred by the
state or its political subdivisions or their agents or any person with
approval of the department;
  6. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the department of
environmental conservation, unless otherwise indicated;
  6-a. "Containment boom" means a floating or stationary device composed
of plastic, natural or synthetic materials which can be mechanically
extended over water or permanently stationed over water for the purposes
of containing floating petroleum, solid objects or other pollutants
within or outside a particular area;
  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 into 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;
  15. "Petroleum" means oil or petroleum of any kind and in any form
including, but not limited to, oil, petroleum, fuel oil, oil sludge, oil
refuse, oil mixed with other wastes and crude oils, gasoline and
kerosene;
  15-a. "Petroleum-bearing vessel" means any vessel transporting
petroleum in commercial quantities as cargo or any vessel constructed or
adapted for the carriage of petroleum in bulk;
  15-b. "Sinking agents" means additives applied to petroleum discharges
to sink floating pollutants below the water surface.
  15-c. "Surface collecting agents" means chemical agents that form a
surface film to control the layer thickness of petroleum.
  15-d. "Tank vessel" means a vessel that is constructed or adapted to
carry, or that carries, petroleum in bulk as cargo or cargo residue, and
that:
  (a) is a vessel of the United States;
  (b) operates on the waters of the state of New York; or
  (c) transfers petroleum in a place subject to the jurisdiction of the
of the state of New York.
  16. "Transfer" means onloading or offloading between major facilities
and vessels or vessels and major facilities, and from vessel to vessel
or major facility to major facility;
  17. "Vessel" means every description, of watercraft or other
contrivance that is practically capable of being used as a means of
commercial transportation of petroleum upon the water, whether or not
self-propelled; and
  18. "Waters" means the ocean and its estuaries to the seaward limit of
the state's jurisdiction, and all lakes, springs, streams and bodies of
surface or groundwater, whether natural or artificial, within the
boundaries of this state. Provided, however, that for purposes of this
definition, waters of the state adjacent to Long Island Sound are to be
strictly construed to effectuate only the provisions of this article.