Bill Text: NJ S2695 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Authorizes special assessments and bond issuance to replace lead-contaminated water service lines.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-06-25 - Substituted by A4120 [S2695 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-S2695-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator RONALD L. RICE
District 28 (Essex)
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex)
SYNOPSIS
Authorizes special assessments and bond issuance to replace lead-contaminated water service lines.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning replacement of lead-contaminated water service line connections and amending various parts of the statutory law.
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, 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, 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 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, "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 service connections, 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 of issuance of bonds, engineering and inspection costs and legal expenses, cost of financial, professional and other estimates and advice, organization, administrative, operating and other expenses of the municipal authority prior to and during such acquisition or construction, and all such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the financing, acquisition, construction and completion of said utility system or part thereof and the placing of the same in operation, and also such provision or reserves for working capital, operating, maintenance or replacement expenses or for payment or security of principal of or interest on bonds during or after such acquisition or construction as the municipal authority may determine, and also reimbursements to the municipal authority or any county, municipality or other person of any moneys theretofore expended for the purposes of the municipal authority or to any county or municipality of any moneys theretofore expended for or in connection with water supply, solid waste, water distribution, sanitation or hydroelectric facilities;
(12) "Real property" shall mean lands both within or without the State, and improvements thereof or thereon, or any rights or interests therein;
(13) "Construct" and "construction" shall connote and include acts of construction, reconstruction, replacement, extension, improvement and betterment of a utility system;
(14) "Industrial wastes" shall mean liquid or other wastes resulting from any processes of industry, manufacture, trade or business or from the development of any natural resource, and shall include any chemical wastes or hazardous wastes;
(15) "Sewage" shall mean the water-carried wastes created in and carried, or to be carried, away from, or to be processed by on-site wastewater systems, residences, hotels, apartments, schools, hospitals, industrial establishments, or any other public or private building, together with such surface or ground water and industrial wastes and leacheate as may be present;
(16) "On-site wastewater system" means any of several facilities, septic tanks or other devices, used to collect, treat, reclaim, or dispose of wastewater or sewage on or adjacent to the property on which the wastewater or sewage is produced, or to convey such wastewater or sewage from said property to such facilities as the authority may establish for its disposal;
(17) "Pollution" means the condition of water resulting from the introduction therein of substances of a kind and in quantities rendering it detrimental or immediately or potentially dangerous to the public health, or unfit for public or commercial use;
(18) "Bonds" shall mean bonds or other obligations issued pursuant to this act;
(19) "Service charges" shall mean water service charges, solid waste service charges, sewer service charges, hydroelectric service charges or any combination of such charges, as said terms are defined in section 21 or 22 of this act or in section 7 of this amendatory and supplementary act;
(20) "Compensating reservoir" shall mean the structures, facilities and appurtenances for the impounding, transportation and release of water for the replenishment in periods of drought or at other necessary times of all or a part of waters in or bordering the State diverted into a utility system operated by a municipal authority;
(21) "Sewage or water reclamation authority" shall mean a public body created pursuant to the "sewerage authorities law," P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-1 et seq.) or the acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto;
(22) "County sewer authority" shall mean a sanitary sewer district authority created pursuant to the act entitled "An act relating to the establishment of sewerage districts in first- and second-class counties, the creation of Sanitary Sewer District Authorities by the establishing of such districts, prescribing the powers and duties of any such authority and of other public bodies in connection with the construction of sewers and sewage disposal facilities in any such district, and providing the ways and means for paying the costs of construction and operation thereof," approved April 23, 1946 (P.L.1946, c.123), or the acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto;
(23) "Chemical waste" shall mean a material normally generated by or used in chemical, petrochemical, plastic, pharmaceutical, biochemical or microbiological manufacturing processes or petroleum refining processes, which has been selected for waste disposal and which is known to hydrolize, ionize or decompose, which is soluble, burns or oxidizes, or which may react with any of the waste materials which are introduced into the landfill, or which is buoyant on water, or which has a viscosity less than that of water or which produces a foul odor. Chemical waste may be either hazardous or nonhazardous;
(24) "Effluent" shall mean liquids which are treated in and discharged by sewage treatment plants;
(25) "Hazardous wastes" shall mean any waste or combination of waste which poses a present or potential threat to human health, living organisms or the environment. "Hazardous waste" shall include, but not be limited to, waste material that is toxic, corrosive, irritating, sensitizing, radioactive, biologically infectious, explosive or flammable;
(26) "Leachate" shall mean a liquid that has been in contact with solid waste and contains dissolved or suspended materials from that solid waste;
(27) "Recycling" shall mean the separation, collection, processing or recovery of metals, glass, paper, solid waste and other materials for reuse or for energy production and shall include resource recovery;
(28) "Sludge" shall mean any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, industrial or other sewage treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, or any other such waste having similar characteristics and effects; "sludge" shall not include effluent;
(29) "Solid waste" shall mean garbage, refuse, and other discarded materials resulting from industrial, commercial and agricultural operations, and from domestic and community activities, and shall include all other waste materials including sludge, chemical waste, hazardous wastes and liquids, except for liquids which are treated in public sewage treatment plants and except for solid animal and vegetable wastes collected by swine producers licensed by the State Department of Agriculture to collect, prepare and feed such wastes to swine on their own farms;
(30) "Solid waste system" shall mean and include the plants, structures and other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed or operated by an authority or by any person to whom a municipal authority has extended credit for this purpose pursuant to the provisions of this act, including transfer stations, incinerators, recycling facilities, including facilities for the generation, transmission and distribution of energy derived from the processing of solid waste, sanitary landfill facilities or other property or plants for the collection, recycling or disposal of solid waste and all vehicles, equipment and other real and personal property and rights thereon and appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the collection, recycling, or disposal of solid waste in a sanitary manner;
(31) "Hydroelectric system" shall mean the plants, structures and other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired, constructed or operated by an authority pursuant to the provisions of this act, including all that which is necessary or useful and convenient for the generation, transmission and sale of hydroelectric power at wholesale;
(32) "Hydroelectric power" shall mean the production of electric current by the energy of moving water;
(33) "Sale of hydroelectric power at wholesale" shall mean any sale of hydroelectric power to any person for purposes of resale of such power;
(34) "Alternative electrical energy" shall mean electrical energy produced from solar, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, or biomass technologies, provided that in the case of biomass technology, the biomass is cultivated and harvested in a sustainable manner;
(35) "Alternative electrical energy system" shall mean any system which uses alternative electrical energy to provide all or a portion of the electricity for the heating, cooling, or general electrical energy needs of a building;
(36) "Pilot county" shall mean a county of the second class having a population between 280,000 and 290,000, a population between 510,000 and 520,000, and a population between 530,000 and 540,000 according to the 2010 federal decennial census; and
(37) "Pilot county utilities authority" shall mean a county utilities authority in a county designated as a pilot county.
(cf: P.L.2013, c.190, s.3)
2. Section 20 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-20) is amended to read as follows:
20. Every municipal authority shall be a public body politic and corporate constituting a political subdivision of the State established as an instrumentality exercising public and essential governmental functions to provide for the public health and welfare and shall have perpetual succession and have the following powers:
(1) To adopt and have a common seal and to alter the same at pleasure;
(2) To sue and be sued;
(3) In the name of the municipal authority and on its behalf, to acquire, hold, use and dispose of its service charges and other revenues and other moneys;
(4) In the name of the municipal authority but for the local unit or units, to acquire, rent, hold, lease as lessor, use and dispose of other personal property for the purposes of the municipal authority;
(5) In the name of the municipal authority but for the local unit or units and subject to the limitations of this act, to acquire by purchase, gift, condemnation or otherwise, or lease as lessee, real property and easements therein, necessary or useful and convenient for the purposes of the municipal authority, and subject to mortgages, deeds of trust or other liens, or otherwise, and to hold, lease as lessor, and to use the same, and to dispose of property so acquired no longer necessary for the purposes of the municipal authority;
(6) To produce, develop, purchase, accumulate, distribute and sell water and water services, facilities and products within or without the district, provided that no water shall be sold at retail in any municipality or county without the district unless the governing body of such municipality or county shall have adopted a resolution requesting the municipal authority to sell water at retail in such municipality or county, and the board of public utility commissioners shall have approved such resolution as necessary and proper for the public convenience;
(7) To provide for and secure the payment of any bonds and the rights of the holders thereof, and to purchase, hold and dispose of any bonds;
(8) To accept gifts or grants of real or personal property, money, material, labor or supplies for the purposes of the municipal or county authority, and to make and perform such agreements and contracts as may be necessary or convenient in connection with the procuring, acceptance or disposition of such gifts or grants;
(9) To enter on any lands, waters or premises for the purpose of making surveys, borings, soundings and examinations for the purposes of the municipal authority, and whenever the operation of a septic tank or other component of an on-site wastewater system shall result in the creation of pollution or contamination source on private property such that under the provisions of R.S.26:3-49, a local board of health would have the authority to notify the owner and require said owner to abate the same, representatives of an authority shall have the power to enter, at all reasonable times, any premises on which such pollution or contamination source shall exist, for the purpose of inspecting, rehabilitating, securing samples of any discharges, improving, repairing, replacing, or upgrading such septic tank or other component of an on-site wastewater system;
(10) To establish an inspection program to be performed at least once every three years on all on-site wastewater systems installed within the district which inspection program shall contain the following minimum notice provisions: (i) not less than 30 days prior to the date of the inspection of any on-site wastewater system as described herein, the authority shall notify the owner and resident of the property that the inspection will occur; and (ii) not less than 60 days prior to the date of the performance of any work other than an inspection, the municipal authority shall provide notice to the owner and resident of the property in which the work will be performed. The notice to be provided to such owner and resident under this subsection shall include a description of the deficiency which necessitates the work and the proposed remedial action, and the proposed date for beginning and duration of the contemplated remedial action;
(11) To prepare and file in the office of the municipal authority records of all inspections, rehabilitation, maintenance, and work, performed with respect to on-site wastewater disposal systems;
(12) To make and enforce bylaws or rules and regulations for the management and regulation of its business and affairs and for the use, maintenance and operation of the utility system and any other of its properties, and to amend the same;
(13) To do and perform any acts and things authorized by this act under, through or by means of its own officers, agents and employees, or by contracts with any person;
(14) To enter into any and all contracts, execute any and all instruments, and do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient or desirable for the purposes of the municipal authority or to carry out any power expressly given in this act subject to the "Local Public Contracts Law," P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.);
(15) To extend credit or make loans to any person for the planning, designing, acquiring, constructing, reconstructing, improving, equipping, furnishing, and operating by that person of any part of a solid waste system, sewage treatment system, wastewater treatment or collection system for the provision of services and facilities within or without the district, which in the case of a solid waste system shall be in a manner consistent with the "Solid Waste Management Act," P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.) and in conformance with the solid waste management plans adopted by the solid waste management districts created therein. The credits or loans may be secured by loan and security agreements, mortgages, leases and any other instruments, upon such terms as the authority shall deem reasonable, including provision for the establishment and maintenance of reserve and insurance funds, and to require the inclusion in any mortgage, lease, contract, loan and security agreement or other instrument, provisions for the construction, use, operation and maintenance and financing of that part of the aforementioned systems as the authority may deem necessary or desirable;
(16) Upon the request of a customer: (i) to offer the customer the ability to receive or access, in electronic format, any periodic bill for service sent by the municipal authority to its customers and any additional information sent by the municipal authority to its customers as required by law, provided that any notice of disconnection, discontinuance or termination of service shall be sent to a customer in written form at the customer's legal mailing address in addition to being sent or being made available in electronic format; and (ii) to provide the customer the option of paying any such periodic bill via electronic means; [and]
(17) In the case of an authority that is a pilot county utilities authority, to fund improvements to county infrastructure pursuant to the provisions of subsection b. of section 40 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-40); and
(18) To construct or reconstruct and finance service connections to a publicly-owned water system, from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property and into the privately-owned structure, for the purpose of replacing lead contaminated service connections, regardless of possible private service connection ownership, so long as the project is (a) undertaken as 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.
(cf: P.L.2013, c.190, s.5)
3. R.S.40:56-1 is amended to read as follows:
R.S.40:56-1. A local improvement is one, the cost of which, or a portion thereof, may be assessed upon the lands in the vicinity thereof benefited thereby.
Any municipality may undertake any of the following works as a local improvement; and the governing body thereof may make, amend, repeal and enforce ordinances for carrying into effect all powers granted in this section:
a. The laying out, opening or establishing of a new street, alley, or other public highway, or portion thereof.
b. The widening, straightening, extension, alteration or changing in any manner of the location of a street, alley or other public highway, or portion thereof.
c. The grading or alteration of the grade of a street, alley or other public highway, or portion thereof.
d. The paving, repaving, or otherwise improving or reimproving a street, alley or other public highway, or portion thereof.
e. The curbing or recurbing, guttering or reguttering of a sidewalk in, upon, or along a street, alley or other public highway, or portion thereof.
f. The construction, reconstruction, improvement and reimprovement of bridges and viaducts.
g. The construction, reconstruction, improvement, reimprovement or relocation of a public walk or driveway on any beach, or along the ocean or any river or other waterway.
h. The improvement or reimprovement of any beach or water front, and the providing of suitable protection to prevent damage to lands or property by the ocean or other waters, including the filing in and grading necessary for the protection of such improvements.
i. The construction, reconstruction, enlargement or extension of a sewer or drain in, under or along a street, alley or public highway, or portion thereof, or in, under or along any public or private lands; the construction, reconstruction, enlargement or extension of a system of sewerage or drainage or both combined; the construction, reconstruction, enlargement or extension of a system of drainage of the marshes and wet lowlands within the municipality; the construction, reconstruction, enlargement or alteration of a system of works for the sanitary disposal of sewage or drainage.
j. (1) The installation of service connections to a system of water, gas, light, heat or power works owned by a municipality or otherwise, including all such works as may be necessary for supplying water, gas, light, heat or power to real estate for whose benefit such services are provided. This authorization includes, but shall not be limited to, the installation of service connections to a publicly-owned water system, from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property and into the privately-owned structure, for the purpose of replacing lead-contaminated service connections, regardless of possible private service connection ownership, so long as the project is (a) undertaken as 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;
(2) The installation of service connections including the laying, construction or placing of mains, conduits or cables in, under or along a street, alley or other public highway or portion thereof.
k. The construction, reconstruction, enlargement or extension of any water main or other works for the distribution of water supplied by the State or any of its political subdivisions, or any public agency of any of the same.
l. The installation of such lighting standards, appliances and appurtenances as may be required for the brilliant illumination of the streets in those parts of the municipality where the governing body of the municipality may deem it necessary or proper to establish what is commonly called a "white way."
m. The widening, deepening or improvement of any stream, creek, river or other waterway.
n. The removal of obstructions in, and the constructing, reconstructing, enlarging or extending of any waterway, of enclosing walls, or of a pipe or conduit or any brook or watercourse, or part of same.
o. The defining of the location and the establishment of widths, grades and elevations of any stream, creek, river or other waterway, and the preventing of encroachments upon the same.
p. The reclaiming, filling and improving and bulkheading and filling in lands lying under tidal or other water, in whole or in part, within the municipality; the reclaiming or filling or bulkheading and filling those lands or lands adjacent to such reclaimed or filled lands; to dredge channels or improve harbor approaches in the waters abounding the lands to be reclaimed, filled and improved, or bulkheaded and filled; provided, the approval of the Planning and Development Council of the Division of Planning and Development in the Department of Conservation and Economic Development of the State of New Jersey, and when necessary, the permission of the Federal authorities in charge of the district port in which the improvements are proposed to be made, to improve and dredge channels and construct and improve the harbor approaches to those lands, shall be first had and obtained.
The governing body may enter into agreements with the Federal Government for reimbursement to the municipality for all or a portion of the cost of dredging channels or improving harbor approaches in waters under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
If any portion of the amount assessed against the lands within the municipality for the improvement shall be reimbursed to the municipality by the Federal Government after the assessment has been made, then a credit shall be made on each assessment levied in proportion to the amount so received from the Federal Government; provided, the amount received by the municipality from the Federal Government shall be in excess of the amount fixed in the assessment to be borne by the municipality at large.
If any portion of the land included within lands benefited or improved by any work done in connection with the reclaiming, filling or bulkheading and filling shall be riparian lands or lands under water, for which the riparian grant has not theretofore been made by the State, the municipal board or body authorized to make assessments for improvements in accordance with this subtitle may include in any such assessment a prospective assessment against the riparian lands or lands under water, and a copy of such prospective assessment shall be filed with the Planning and Development Council of the Division of Planning and Development in the Department of Conservation and Economic Development of the State of New Jersey and shall be a part of the records of that council. Upon the sale or grant by the State of the riparian rights to any such lands for which a prospective assessment has been filed with the council, the amount of such prospective assessment together with interest at the rate of five per centum (5%) per annum from the time of the confirmation of the assessment for the improvement shall be included by said Planning and Development Council in the purchase price fixed for such lands and made a part of the payment for the grant, and the amount of the assessment with interest, when paid, shall be turned over by said Planning and Development Council to the municipality making the assessment. Such prospective assessment shall also be included in the general assessment for and against any such riparian lands or lands under water for which an annual rental or fee is being charged or collected by said Planning and Development Council under any agreement by which the fee of any such riparian lands is passed, and when the fee does so pass by grant from the State the prospective assessment shall become immediately due and payable, together with interest thereon at the rate of five per centum (5%) per annum from the time of the confirmation of the assessment for the improvement and the assessment shall become a lien upon those lands until paid and shall be collectible as other liens for public improvements in the municipality. Should said Planning and Development Council lease for a term of years any such riparian lands or lands under water, included within lands benefited or improved by any work done in connection with the reclaiming, filling or bulkheading and filling, it shall include in the annual rental to be charged therefor one-tenth of the amount of the prospective assessment for each year of the term not exceeding ten years until the prospective assessment and the interest thereon at the rate of five per centum (5%) per annum from the time of confirmation of the assessment for the improvement, shall be paid. If the lease shall be for a period less than ten years, such provision shall be contained in any and all extensions and renewals thereof, or in any new leases until the full prospective assessment with such interest shall have been paid. Nothing contained in this subparagraph shall apply to lands owned by a company whose rates are subject to regulation by the Board of Public Utility Commissioners.
Whenever convenient more than one of the works provided for in this section may be carried on as one improvement. Any municipality may undertake any or all of the works mentioned in this section as a general improvement to be paid for by general taxation, and any municipality may provide for the maintenance, repair and operation of any or all of said works by taxation whether the same are undertaken as local or general improvements.
(cf: P.L.1951, c.175, s.1)
4. N.J.S.40A:2-22 is amended to read as follows:
40A:2-22. The governing body of the local unit shall determine the period of usefulness of any purpose according to its reasonable life computed from the date of the bonds, which period shall not be greater than the following:
a. Buildings and structures.
1. Bridges, including retaining walls and approaches, or permanent structures of brick, stone, concrete or metal, or similar durable construction, 30 years.
2. Buildings, including the original furnishings and equipment therefor:
Class A: A building, of which all walls, floors, partitions, stairs and roof are wholly of incombustible material, except the window frames, doors, top flooring and wooden handrails on the stairs, 40 years;
Class B: A building, the outer walls of which are wholly of incombustible material, except the window frames and doors, 30 years;
Class C: A building which does not meet the requirements of Class A or Class B, 20 years.
3. Buildings or structures acquired substantially reconstructed or additions thereto, one-half the period fixed in this subsection for such buildings or structures.
4. Additional furnishings, five years.
b. Marine improvements.
1. Harbor improvements, docks or marine terminals, 40 years.
2. Dikes, bulkheads, jetties or similar devices of stone, concrete or metal, 15 years; of wood or partly of wood, 10 years.
c. Additional equipment and machinery.
1. Additional or replacement equipment and machinery, 15 years.
2. Voting machines, 15 years.
3. Information technology and telecommunications equipment, 7 years, except that for items with a unit cost of less than $5,000, 5 years.
d. Real property.
1. Acquisition for any public purpose of lands or riparian rights, or both, and the original dredging, grading, draining or planting thereof, 40 years.
2. Improvement of airport, cemetery, golf course, park, playground, 15 years.
3. Stadia of concrete or other incombustible materials, 20 years.
e. Streets or thoroughfares.
1. Elimination of grade crossings, 35 years.
2. Streets or roads:
Class A: Rigid pavement. A pavement of not less than eight inches of cement concrete or a six-inch cement concrete base with not less than three-inch bituminous concrete surface course, or equivalent wearing surface, 20 years.
Flexible pavement. A pavement not less than 10 inches in depth consisting of five-inch macadam base, three-inch modified penetration macadam and three-inch bituminous concrete surface course or other pavements of equivalent strength, in accordance with the findings of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) Road Test, 20 years.
Class B: Mixed surface-treated road. An eight-inch surface of gravel, stone or other selected material under partial control mixed with cement or lime and fly ash, six inches in compacted thickness with bituminous surface treatment and cover, 10 years.
Bituminous penetration road. A five-inch gravel or stone base course and a three-inch course bound with a bituminous or equivalent binder, 10 years.
Class C: Mixed bituminous road. An eight-inch surface of gravel, stone, or other selected material under partial control mixed with bituminous material one inch or more in compacted thickness, five years.
Penetration macadam road. A road of sand, gravel or water-bound macadam, or surfacing with penetration macadam, five years.
3. Sidewalks, curbs and gutters of stone, concrete or brick, 10 years.
The period of usefulness in this subsection shall apply to construction and reconstruction of streets and thoroughfares.
f. Utilities and municipal systems.
1. Sewerage system, whether sanitary or storm water, water supply or distribution system, 40 years.
2. Electric light, power or gas systems, garbage, refuse or ashes incinerator or disposal plant, 25 years.
3. Communication and signal systems, 10 years.
4. House connections to publicly-owned gas, water or sewerage systems from the service main in the street to the curb or property lines where not part of original installation, five years.
5. House connections to publicly-owned water systems, from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property and into the privately-owned structure, for the purpose of replacing lead-contaminated house connections, so long as the project is (a) undertaken as 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, 30 years.
g. Vehicles and apparatus.
1. Fire engines, apparatus and equipment, when purchased new, but not fire equipment purchased separately, 10 years.
2. Automotive vehicles, including original apparatus and equipment (other than passenger cars and station wagons), when purchased new, five years.
3. Major repairs, reconditioning or overhaul of fire engines and apparatus, ambulances, rescue vehicles, and similar public safety vehicles (other than passenger cars and station wagons) which may reasonably be expected to extend for at least five years the period of usefulness thereof, five years.
h. The closure of a sanitary landfill facility utilized, owned or operated by a county or municipality, 15 years; provided that the closure has been approved by the Board of Public Utilities and the Department of Environmental Protection. For the purposes of this subsection "closure" means all activities associated with the design, purchase or construction of all measures required by the Department of Environmental Protection, pursuant to law, in order to prevent, minimize or monitor pollution or health hazards resulting from sanitary landfill facilities subsequent to the termination of operations at any portion thereof, including, but not necessarily limited to, the costs of the placement of earthen or vegetative cover, and the installation of methane gas vents or monitors and leachate monitoring wells or collection systems at the site of any sanitary landfill facility.
i. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2007, c.62.)
j. The prefunding of a claims account for environmental liability claims by an environmental impairment liability insurance pool pursuant to P.L.1993, c.269 (C.40A:10-38.1 et al.), 20 years.
(cf: P.L.2007, c.62, s.17)
5. N.J.S.40A:31-3 is amended to read as follows:
40A:31-3. As used in this act:
a. "Bonds" means bond anticipation notes or bonds issued in accordance with the "Local Bond Law," N.J.S.40A:2-1 et seq.
b. "Cost" as applied to water supply facilities or extensions or additions thereto, means the cost of acquisition or the construction, including improvement, reconstruction, extension or enlargement, the cost of all labor materials, machinery and equipment, the cost of all lands, property, rights and easements acquired, the cost of demolition or removal of any buildings or structures thereon, financing charges, interest on bonds issued to finance water supply facilities prior to and during construction, the cost of plans and specifications, surveys or estimates of costs and revenues, the cost of engineering, legal services, and any other expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility of construction, administrative expenses and such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the construction or acquisition of water supply facilities, and the financing thereof.
c. "Local unit" means a county or municipality.
d. "Water supply facilities" means the plants, structures or other real and personal property acquired, constructed or operated, or to be financed, acquired, constructed or operated, or any parts thereof, including reservoirs, basins, dams, canals, aqueducts, standpipes, conduits, pipelines, mains, pumping stations, water distribution systems, compensating reservoirs, waterworks, or sources of water supply, well, purification or filtration plants, or other plants or works, connections, rights of flowage or diversion, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances and other real and personal property, or rights therein, and appurtenances necessary or useful for the accumulation, supply or distribution of water. Source: C.40:14C-3 (P.L.1979, c.451, s.3).
The term "water supply
facilities" includes 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 service
connections, regardless of possible private service connection ownership, so
long as the project is (1) an environmental infrastructure project, as defined
under section 3 of P.L.1985, c.334 (C.58:11B-3), and (2) 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.
(cf: P.L.1989, c.109, s.1)
6. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would authorize municipalities to levy special assessments, and issue bonds, to replace certain lead-contaminated water service lines.
Pursuant to R.S.40:56-1, if a municipality engages in a project that is categorized as a "local improvement," the municipality may assess the cost of the project on local property owners in the vicinity who benefit from the project. This bill adjusts language in R.S.40:56-1 to ensure that the replacement of certain lead-contaminated home service connections fall within this category, allowing those projects to be assessed as local improvements.
The bill would also amend N.J.S.40A:2-22, a section of the "Local Bond Law," to permit municipalities and counties to issue 30-year bonds to fund the replacement of lead-contaminated house connections to publicly-owned water systems. Specifically, these bonds would fund replacement of lead-contaminated house connections from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property, and into the privately-owned structure.
The bill also amends the "County and Municipal Water Supply Act," N.J.S.40A:31-1 et seq., and the "municipal and county utilities authorities law," P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-1 et seq.), to provide that the public entities operating under those laws are not prevented from undertaking projects to replace lead-contaminated service connections, regardless of possible private service connection ownership.
The provisions of this bill only would apply to service line replacement projects that are: (1) undertaken as environmental infrastructure projects, as defined under section 3 of P.L.1985, c.334 (C.58:11B-3); and (2) 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.
