House Bill 543 amends various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated to establish protections for sewerage systems operated by cities, utility districts, and municipalities. Specifically, it stipulates that a city or town that has operated a sewerage system outside its corporate boundaries for at least twenty-five years cannot cease operations as long as the system maintains sufficient capacity, as determined by a study from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR). Similar provisions are included for utility districts and municipalities regarding their sewerage systems and sewage treatment works, respectively.

The bill aims to ensure the continued operation of these essential services in areas outside corporate boundaries, thereby promoting public welfare and maintaining infrastructure stability. The new legal language inserted into the current law emphasizes the importance of capacity assessments conducted by TACIR to determine the viability of these systems. The act is set to take effect upon becoming law.