As used in the Water and Sanitation District Act:

A. "board" means the board of directors of a district;

B. "district" means a water and sanitation district that is established pursuant to the Water and Sanitation District Act and that is either entirely within or partly within and partly without one or more counties; provided those parts or parcels of the district lying in two or more counties are contiguous with one another, and further provided, a district created pursuant to a petition signed by the board of county commissioners of a county shall be entirely within that county;

C. "fee-for-service system" means a garbage or refuse collection system established by a district to fully implement the purposes for which the district is created and for which a service is offered, a fee is established by the board and the fee is paid by the customers of the district;

D. "proponents and opponents" means residents or nonresidents of a district who pay or are liable for paying rates, tolls, fees and charges assessed by that district;

E. "publication" means giving notice once a week for three consecutive weeks in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county in which all or the major portion of the district is located; however, it is not necessary that publication be made on the same day of the week in each of the three weeks, but not less than fourteen days, excluding the day of first publication, shall intervene between the first publication and the last publication, and publication shall be complete on the date of the last publication;

F. "sewage system" includes all constructions for collection, transportation, pumping, treatment and final disposition of sewage; and

G. "utility" means a water system, sewer system or other fee-for-service system implemented by the district.

History: 1941 Comp., § 77-3403, enacted by Laws 1943, ch. 80, § 3; 1953 Comp., § 75-18-3; Laws 1963, ch. 261, § 2; 1977, ch. 345, § 3; 1978 Comp., § 73-21-4, 1985, ch. 155, § 1; 2003, ch. 116, § 1; 2005, ch. 167, § 3; 2009, ch. 241, § 2; 2019, ch. 212, § 259.

Cross references. — For county classification, see 4-44-1 NMSA 1978.

For publication of legal notice, see Chapter 14, Article 11 NMSA 1978.

The 2019 amendment, effective April 3, 2019, removed the definitions of "taxpaying elector of a district", "qualified elector" and "elector" from the list of defined terms used in the Water and Sanitation District Act; deleted Subsection G and redesignated former Subsection H as Subsection G.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, deleted former Subsection A, which defined "sewage disposal"; deleted former Subsection B, which defined "district"; deleted former Subsection C, which defined "board"; deleted former Subsection D, which defined "taxpaying elector of a district"; deleted Subsection E, which defined "publication"; and added Subsections A through H.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, added the terms "qualified elector" or "elector" in Subsection D and defined the terms to mean a person registered to vote in any precinct who is a resident of the district, a nonresident of the district who pays or is liable to pay obligations set by the board or is a not resident of the district who pays or has incurred a general tax liability on property in the district.

The 2003 amendment, effective June 20, 2003, in Subsection A deleted "may be" following "district" at the beginning and inserted "means a water and sanitation district that is established pursuant to that act and that is either" following "district" at the beginning; and deleted Subsection F concerning the definition of "county."

"Taxpaying elector of a district". — A "taxpaying elector of a district" must be a resident of the district; thus, nonresidents of a district who owned property within the district were not entitled to vote in district elections. Hughes v. Timberon Water & Sanitation Dist., 1999-NMCA-136, 128 N.M. 186, 991 P.2d 16.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 39A C.J.S. Health and Environment § 8.