New York Consolidated Laws, Transportation Corporations Law - TCP § 45. Condemnation of real property

Any such corporation shall have the right to acquire real estate, or any interest therein, necessary for the purposes of its incorporation, and the right to lay, relay, repair and maintain conduits and water pipes with connections and fixtures, in, through or over the lands of others, the right to intercept and divert the flow of water from the lands of riparian owners, and from persons owning or interested in any waters, and the right to prevent the flow of drainage of noxious or impure matters from the lands of others into its reservoirs or sources of supply.  If any such corporation, which has made a contract with any city, town or village or with any of the inhabitants thereof for the supply of pure and wholesome water as authorized by section forty-two, shall be unable to agree upon the terms of purchase of any such property or rights, it may acquire the same by condemnation.  But no such corporation shall have power to take or use water from any of the canals of this state, or any canal reservoirs as feeders, or any streams which have been taken by the state for the purpose of supplying the canals with water.