HB 318-FN-LOCAL – AS INTRODUCED
2005 SESSION
08/04
HOUSE BILL 318-FN-LOCAL
AN ACT relative to providing municipal water supply services.
SPONSORS: Rep. Bicknell, Rock 1; Sen. Barnes, Dist 17
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill requires a municipal water company to provide service to any person within the company’s service area.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
05-0798
08/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five
AN ACT relative to providing municipal water supply services.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Section; Required Service. Amend RSA 38 by inserting after section 31 the following new section:
38:31-a Required Service. A municipal water company shall allow any person within its established service area to connect to the municipal water company’s water supply.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
LBAO
05-0798
1/24/05
HB 318-FN-LOCAL - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to providing municipal water supply services.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Environmental Services states this bill will increase state and local expenditures, and local revenues by an indeterminable amount in FY 2005 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state and county revenues or county expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department states that this legislation contains insufficient information to estimate expenditures and revenue. The following information is required to estimate the fiscal impact of imposing its requirements:
• The legislation does not specify if a municipal water system or the entity wishing to connect to the water system is responsible for paying the cost to connect. Costs associated with this legislation include the actual physical connection of an entity to a water system, as well as the costs associated with constructing new sources of water, treatment systems, storage, and pumping stations.
• This legislation does not specify the type of water user that would be allowed to connect to the municipal system. The cost of connecting and servicing a large commercial water user would be much different then the cost of connecting a residential water user.
The Department also has no reasonable method to estimate the additional number of residential or commercial entities that this legislation would enable to connect to a water system, nor does the Department have any reasonable method to estimate how many entities would request such a connection.
The Department states that this legislation may increase State expenditures. The requirements of the legislation may cause water systems to seek approval from the State to connect new water users, develop new water sources, and construct additional water system infrastructure (storage, treatment, pipelines, and pumping stations). The State may also incur costs associated with imposing moratoriums on new water hook-ups for water systems that do not have an adequate quantity or quality of water.
The Municipal Association states that if RSA 38:27, the statute which allows a government body or board of water commissioners to assess users of the water system the charge of constructing or expanding a water system is construed to mean that such an assessment includes the costs of expanding service to connect new users, there should be no fiscal impact to the municipality or to other ratepayers of the water system.