Bill Text: NJ S2437 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides for certain limits on rates sewerage facilities may charge for processing diverted wastewater from other sewerage facilities when damaged by a natural disaster or other emergent event.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-01-08 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee [S2437 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-S2437-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator KEVIN J. O'TOOLE
District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Provides for certain limits on rates sewerage facilities may charge for processing diverted wastewater from other sewerage facilities when damaged by a natural disaster or other emergent event.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning sewerage service rates and supplementing Title 58 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
"Host operator" means a sewerage facility operator that receives or processes wastewater that has been diverted from another sewerage facility operator.
"Impaired operator" means a sewerage facility operator of a sewerage facility that has been damaged as a result of a natural disaster, or other emergent event, and that is in a state of limited functionality as a result thereof.
"Sewerage facility" means a plant, structure, or other real or personal property, or any part thereof, used for the storage, collection, reduction, reclamation, disposal, separation or other treatment of wastewater.
"Sewerage facility operator" means a State authority, county, municipality, a municipal, county or regional sewerage or utility or utilities authority, a municipal, county or regional sewerage district, or any other political subdivision of the State or private entity authorized to operate a sewerage facility.
2. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, whenever a host operator charges a sewerage service fee to an impaired operator for the receipt or processing of wastewater, the sewerage service fee shall be charged at the same rate that is applicable to other customers, of the same type or class, for substantially similar usage of the sewerage facility pursuant to the existing rate schedule adopted by the host operator.
b. If the rate schedule does not provide for a rate that is applicable to the same type or class, and usage, of the impaired operator, the host operator may determine the appropriate rate in accordance with the requirements of all laws, rules, and regulations as may be applicable to such a determination, provided that, in addition to any such requirements:
(1) the appropriate rate shall be determined on the basis of the same factors considered in determining the rates applied to other customers, and the factors shall be weighted in the same manner;
(2) the host operator shall not consider the impairment of an impaired operator as a factor in determining the appropriate rate;
(3) the resulting rate to be applied to the impaired operator shall not exceed the rate that would otherwise be applied in the absence of the impairment; and
(4) the resulting rate shall be consistent with the overall rate schedule of the host operator so as to be reasonably equitable as compared to the usages and rates of other customers.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would provide certain limitations on the rates that the operator of a sewerage facility may charge for receiving or processing diverted wastewater from another sewerage facility that has been damaged by a natural disaster or other emergent event.
The bill would apply to all public and private entities authorized by the State to operate sewerage facilities. Sewerage facility operators are constituted under various public and private forms authorized by law, and are accordingly subject to various laws depending on which authorizing law a given sewerage facility operator has been constituted pursuant to. Under current laws, somewhat varying degrees of uniformity are required with regard to the sewerage rates a sewerage facility operator may charge customers that are of the same type or class, or that make similar use of the sewerage facilities. This bill would expressly require that, in addition to any such requirements for the setting of rates that may be applicable pursuant to current law, all sewerage facilities would be subject to certain express limitations on the rates they may charge when receiving or processing diverted wastewater from another sewerage facility that has been damaged by a natural disaster or other emergent event.
Specifically, the bill would require all sewerage facility operators to charge an impaired operator at the same rate that they charge other customers of the same type or class for substantially similar usage of the sewerage facility, if such a rate is already established pursuant to the sewerage operator's existing rate schedule. If no such rate is already established pursuant to the existing rate schedule, the sewerage facility operator may determine an appropriate rate, provided that:
(1) the appropriate rate is determined on the basis of the same factors considered in determining the rates applied to other customers, and the factors are weighted in the same manner;
(2) the fact that the sewerage facility diverting wastewater is functionally impaired is not considered as a factor in determining the appropriate rate;
(3) the resulting rate to be applied to the impaired operator does not exceed the rate that would otherwise be applied in the absence of the impairment; and
(4) the resulting rate is consistent with the overall existing rate schedule such that it is reasonably equitable as compared to the usages and rates of other customers.
These requirements would be in addition to all other requirements that may be applicable to any such rate determination under existing law.
