40:62-127 Water rates and regulations.

40:62-127. a. The water commission may prescribe and change from time to time rates to be charged for water supplied by the waterworks so acquired, and by any extension or enlargement thereof, but rates for the same kind or class of service shall be uniform in all the municipalities supplied by the waterworks.

The water commission shall establish a rate structure that provides for uniform water service charges for municipal water supply service and fire protection systems.

No rates shall include the imposition of standby fees or charges for any fire protection system to a residential customer served by a water service line of two inches or less in diameter.

Nothing in this section shall preclude a water commission from requiring separate dedicated service lines for fire protection. The water commission may require that fire service lines be metered. Nothing in this section shall alter the liability for maintenance and repair of service lines which exists on the effective date of P.L.2003, c.278.

No rates shall include the imposition of any fees in excess of the cost of water actually used for any sprinkler system required to be installed in any residential health care facility pursuant to the "Health Care Facilities Planning Act," P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) and regulations promulgated thereunder or in any rooming or boarding house pursuant to the "Rooming and Boarding House Act of 1979," P.L.1979, c.496 (C.55:13B-1 et al.) and regulations promulgated thereunder.

Nothing herein shall preclude any commission from charging for the actual cost of water main connection.

b. The supplying of water to locations beyond the boundaries of the municipalities owning the waterworks shall be basis for separate classification of service to permit reasonable differentiation of rates. As soon as practicable after acquiring the waterworks, rates shall be prescribed, and shall be revised from time to time whenever necessary, so that the waterworks shall be self-supporting, the earnings to be sufficient to provide for all expenses of operation and maintenance and such charges as interest, sinking fund and amortization, so as to prevent any deficit to be paid by taxation from accruing. The interest, sinking fund and amortization shall be construed to include:

(1) All service on debt heretofore or hereafter incurred by the commission or by any municipality represented by the commission in connection with the acquisition of such privately-owned waterworks, and any extensions thereto and enlargements thereof, heretofore or hereafter formally assumed by the commission or its successors, and

(2) All service on debt heretofore or hereafter incurred by the commission or by a municipality represented by the commission, or its successors, and heretofore or hereafter formally assumed by the commission, or its successors, as part of any agreement with the municipality relative to the acquisition, by the commission, or its successors, of the ownership of or the management and control of or the right to use any water supply or part thereof or interest therein or any distribution system of water mains and connections, or any part thereof, which any such municipality may own or control.

c. The provisions of this section shall be deemed a contract with the holders of all obligations which shall be or may have been issued for the purpose of financing such acquisitions or which heretofore have been or may hereafter be issued to refund temporary bonds or obligations issued for such purposes, the payment of any of which obligations, and interest thereon, the commission, or its successors, has heretofore or may hereafter formally assume as aforesaid.

d. The commission and any succeeding commission may prescribe, and alter and enforce all reasonable rules and regulations for the maintenance and operation of the waterworks and the collection of rates.

Amended 1960, c.172; 1981, c.514, s.3; 1991, c.162, s.2; 2003. c.278, s.4.