Sponsored by:
Assemblyman GARY S. SCHAER
District 36 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Removes restrictions on special assessments and bond issuances for replacement of residential lead service lines; revises budgetary, maintenance, and reporting requirements for operators of certain water systems.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the financing and operation of water systems, supplementing Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes, amending various parts of the statutory law, and repealing section 5 of P.L.2017, c.133.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 3 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-3) is amended to read as follows:
3. As used in [this act] P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-1 et seq.) , unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:
(1) "Municipality" shall mean any city of any class, any borough, village, town, township, or any other municipality other than a county or a school district, and except when used in section 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 42 or 45 of [this act] P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-4, C.40:14B-5, C.40:14B-6, C.40:14B-11, C.40:14B-12, C.40:14B-13, C.40:14B-42, or C.40:14B-45) , any agency thereof or any two or more thereof acting jointly or any joint meeting or other agency of any two or more thereof;
(2) "County" shall mean any county of any class;
(3) "Governing body" shall mean, in the case of a county, the board of chosen freeholders, or in the case of those counties organized pursuant to the provisions of the "Optional County Charter Law," P.L.1972, c.154 (C.40:41A-1 et seq.), the board of chosen freeholders and the county executive, the county supervisor or the county manager, as appropriate, and, in the case of a municipality, the commission, council, board or body, by whatever name it may be known, having charge of the finances of the municipality;
(4) "Person" shall mean any person, association, corporation, nation, state or any agency or subdivision thereof, other than a county or municipality of the State or a municipal authority;
(5) "Municipal authority," "authority," or "water reclamation authority" shall mean a public body created or organized pursuant to section 4, 5 or 6 of [this act] P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-4, C.40:14B-5, or C.40:14B-6) and shall include a municipal utilities authority created by one or more municipalities and a county utilities authority created by a county;
(6) Subject to the exceptions provided in section 10, 11 or 12 of [this act] P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-10, C.40:14B-11, or C.40:14B-12) , "district" shall mean the area within the territorial boundaries of the county, or of the municipality or municipalities, which created or joined in or caused the creation or organization of a municipal authority;
(7) "Local unit" shall mean the county, or any municipality, which created or joined in or caused the creation or organization of a municipal authority;
(8) "Water system" shall mean the plants, structures and other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed or operated by a municipal authority or by any person to whom a municipal authority has extended credit for this purpose for the purposes of the municipal authority, including reservoirs, basins, dams, canals, aqueducts, standpipes, conduits, pipelines, mains, pumping stations, water distribution systems, compensating reservoirs, waterworks or sources of water supply, wells, purification or filtration plants or other plants and works, connections, rights of flowage or division, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances, and other real and personal property, and rights therein, and appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the accumulation, supply and redistribution of water.
The term "water system" shall include the replacement of service connections to a publicly-owned water system, from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property and into a privately-owned structure, when used in reference to a project undertaken for the purpose of replacing [lead-contaminated] residential lead service [connections] lines, regardless of possible private service connection ownership [, so long as the project is (a) an environmental infrastructure project, as defined under section 3 of P.L.1985, c.334 (C.58:11B-3), and (b) funded either by loans from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, created pursuant to section 4 of P.L.1985, c.334 (C.58:11B-4), or by loans issued through the Department of Environmental Protection];
(9) "Sewerage system" shall mean the plants, structures, on-site wastewater systems and other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed, maintained or operated by a municipal authority or by any person to whom a municipal authority has extended credit for this purpose for the purposes of the municipal authority, including sewers, conduits, pipelines, mains, pumping and ventilating stations, sewage treatment or disposal systems, plants and works, connections, outfalls, compensating reservoirs, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances, and other real and personal property, and rights therein, and appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the collection, treatment, purification or disposal in a sanitary manner of any sewage, liquid or solid wastes, night soil or industrial wastes;
(10) "Utility system" shall mean a water system, solid waste system, sewerage system, or a hydroelectric system or any combination of such systems, acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed or operated by a municipal authority or by any person to whom a municipal authority has extended credit for this purpose;
(11) "Cost" shall mean, in addition to the usual connotations thereof, the cost of acquisition or construction of all or any part of a utility system and of all or any property, rights, easements, privileges, agreements and franchises deemed by the municipal authority to be necessary or useful and convenient therefor or in connection therewith and the cost of retiring the present value of the unfunded accrued liability due and owing by a municipal authority, as calculated by the system actuary for a date certain upon the request of a municipal authority, for early retirement incentive benefits granted by the municipal authority pursuant to P.L.1991, c.230 and P.L.1993, c.181, including interest or discount on bonds, cost o