CHAPTER 401

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 15-749 of the Code of Virginia, which per-
mits certain cities and counties to acquire the property of certain
public service corporations by increasing the number of counties to

which the section applies.
rQmr ora
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

ii That § 15-749 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as
ollows:

§ 15-749. For the purpose of making provision for an adequate
water supply or of acquiring maintaining or enlarging a water works
system, the council of every city having a population of more than twenty-
five thousand and the board of supervisors of every county having a popu-
lation of more than five hundred per square mile, and the board of super-
visors of every county adjoining such a county, in addition to other
powers conferred by law, shall have the power to acquire, within or with-
out, or partly within and partly without, the limits of the city or county,
by purchase, condemnation, lease or otherwise, the property, in whole or
in part, whensoever acquired, or any private or public service corporation
operating a water works system or chartered for the purpose of acquiring
or operating such a system, including its land, plants, works, buildings,
machinery, pipes, mains, wells, basins, reservoirs and all appurtenances
thereto and its contracts, easements, rights and franchises, including its
franchise to be a corporation, whether such property or any part thereof,
is essential to the purposes of the corporation or not. However, any city
or county condemning property hereunder shall rest under the same ob-
ligation in respect of furnishing water to such customers of any water
company whose property is condemned as that under which such water
company rested before such proceedings were taken and had.