Chap. 490.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3042 of the Code of Virginia,
in relation to the powers of certain cities to acquire water works systems.
[S B 249]

Approved March 26, 1928

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty hundred and forty-two of the Code of Virginia, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 3042. For the purpose of making provision for an ade-
quate water supply, or of acquiring, maintaining or enlarging a water
works system, the council of every city having, by the last United
States census, a population of more than twenty-five thousand and
the board of supervisors of every county having a population of more
than five hundred per square mile according to the last general United
States census, in addition to other powers conferred by law, shall
have the power to acquire, within or without, or partly within and
partly without, the limits of said city, or county by purchase, con-
demnation, lease or otherwise the property, in whole or in part, when-
soever acquired, of any private or public service corporations operating
a water works system, or chartered for the purpose of acquiring or
operating such a system, including its lands, plants, works, buildings,
macinnery, pipes, mains, wells, basins, reservoirs, and all appurte-
nances thereto, its contracts, easements, rights and franchises, including
its franchise to be a corporation, whether said property, or any part
thereof, is essential to the purposes of said corporation or not; pro-
vided, however, that any city or county condemning property here-
under shall rest under the same obligations, in respect of furnishing
water to such customers of any water company whose property 1s
condemned as may be cut off from a supply of water by such con-
demnation, as those under which the said water company rested before
said proceedings were taken and had.

Provided, however, that any city situated on the Elizabeth river,
or any branch thereof, which shall acquire, maintain, or enlarge a
water works system, under the provisions of this act, and which shall
undertake to supply water on the east and west sides of the said river,
shall establish and maintain the same rates of charges for water, under
similar conditions and circumstances, and furnish the same quality
and pressure of water, all conditions considered, to all consumers of the
same class in any city on the east and west sides of said river, or on the
west side of said river within two miles of the corporate limits thereof
as they now exist or may be hereafter extended, and shall not, directly
or indirectly, charge more for water to consumers of the same class,
under similar conditions and circumstances, in any city on the west
side of said river, or, on the west side of said river, within two miles
of the corporate limits thereof as they now exist or may hereafter be
extended, than it charges to such consumers on the east side thereot :
and in the event that any city shall acquire under this act, by purchase,
lease, condemnation, or otherwise, the property, rights and franchises
of any private or public service corporation operating a water works
system, or chartered for the purpose of acquiring or operating such a
system, which is engaged in furnishing or is under contract to furnish
water to any other city than the city so acquiring the said property,
rights and franchises of such corporation, the acquiring city shall, in
consideration of the use of the streets and alleys of such other city
for the purpose of distributing its water, and so long as such other
city shall not impose, demand, collect, or receive any license or prop-
erty tax upon the business or property of said acquiring city in con-
nection with its water system in said city, furnish to such other city,
free of charge, for fire hydrants, flushing sewers, public buildings, and
for all other city uses, a sufficient supply of water of the same quality
and pressure, all conditions considered, that it furnishes to itself, the
city to which said water is furnished to erect and maintain, at its own
cost, its fire hydrants, the number and location of such hydrants. to
be determined by its city council; provided the same shall not be less
than one city block apart; and the city furnishing such water to estab-
lish and maintain, at its own cost, all necessary pipe lines and mains
for furnishing such water; except that the city furnishing the water
shall not be required to extend its pipes or mains for any purpose un-
less there shall be an average of one water consumer to every fifty
feet of main so to be extended: and in case there is not such a nuinber
of consumers, the city in which the mains are to be extended, may lav
the same, and they shall then become the property of the city furnish-
ing the water, and shall be taken over by the said city so soon as there
shall be said average of one consumer for each fifty feet of pipe-so
laid, at their physical valuation at the time of taking them over.

Provided further, that if any city shall acquire by purchase, lease,
condemnation, or otherwise, the property, rights, and franchises of
any private or public service corporation operating a water works sys-
tem, whose plant is located within one mile of the corporate limits of
any city, and whose mains and pipes are laid in the streets of such city,
and shall thereby prevent the said city from procuring water from the
plant of said company, it shall be the duty of the city so acquiring
such property to establish and maintain the same rates of charges for
water under similar conditions and circumstances, and furnish the
same quality and pressure of water, all conditions considered, to all
consumers of the same class in the city so located as is furnished to
consumers in the city .so acquiring property.

Nothing in this act shall be construed as preventing the acquiring
city or county or any other city in the State from contracting with
each other for the acquisition of a water supply, or for the use and
management of the water supply of either city, in any manner, and
upon any terms that to said cities may seem fit.

Any city situated within five miles of a city having by the last
United States census a population of more than fifty thousand, shall
have all the powers vested in said last mentioned city under this act.

In condemnation proceedings had hereunder, the provisions of an
act entitled, an act concerning the exercise of the power of eminent
domain, approved January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, as
amended, so far as applicable, shall govern; except that the provisions
of section fifty-two of chapter five of an act entitled an act concerning
corporations, which became a law on May twenty-first, nineteen hun-
dred and three, shall not apply. The proper court of the city or county
wherein the property proposed to be condemned, or any part thereof
is located, shall have jurisdiction of the condemnation proceedings.

2. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.