Chap. 200.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to protect the
health of the inhabitants of cities and incorporated towns and to protect their
property against fire by requiring public service corporations engaged in the
business of furnishing water or sewerage tacilities to such cities and towns
or their inhabitants, to provide at a reasonable charge, an adequate supply
and service, and to make such extensions of service as may be necessary for
the protection of the health of such inhabitants, and toa provide for the en-
forcement of such public duties where such public service corporations are
unable or shall fail or refuse to perform the same, approved March 21, 1924,
so as to make the came apply to counties having a population more than five
hundred inhabitants per square mile. [H B 210]

Approved March 14, 1928

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled an act to protect the health of the inhabitants of cities and in-
corporated towns, and to protect their property against fire by re-
quiring public service corporations engaged in the business of fur-
nishing water or sewerage facilities to such cities and towns or their
inhabitants, to provide at a reasonable charge, an adequate supply and
service, and to make such extensions of service as may be necessary
for the protection of the health of such inhabitants, and to provide for
the enforcement of such public duties where such public service cor-
porations are unable or shall fail or refuse to perform the same, ap-
proved March twenty-first, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. It shall be the duty of every public service corporation
engaged in the business of furnishing water or sewerage facilities to
any city or incorporated town, or any county having a population
greater than five hundred inhabitants per square mile, as shown by
United States census, in this Commonwealth or to inhabitants thereof,
(whether or not such business is conducted under or by virtue of a
municipal franchise) to furnish at all times and at a reasonable charge
a supply of water, a system of distribution or disposal and services
and facilities incidental to such supply, distribution or disposal suff-
cient and adequate to the protection of the health of such inhabitants
and to the public health of the community, and a supply of water
adequate for proper fire protection within such city or town or such
county and the adjacent territory served by the mains of such corpora-
tion.

Section 2. If any such public service corporation shall fail or re-
fuse to perform any of the duties imposed by section one of this act
or by chapter one hundred and sixty of the Code of Virginia, any city
or incorporated town, or any such county served or whose inhabitants
are served by such corporation may file with the State corporation
commission a petition setting forth the failure or refusal of such cor-
poration to carry out and perform one or more of such duties, at a
reasonable charge, or to the detriment or threatened detriment of the
public health and safety from fire of such community.

Section 3. The State corporation commission, after due notice to
such public service corporation, shall investigate such complaint and,
if upon such investigation, the commission shall determine that the
public health of the community or its safety from fire is impaired or
threatened with impairment by reason of the failure of such public
service corporation to perform or carry out any of the duties imposed
by section one of this act, or by chapter one hundred and sixty of the
Code of Virginia, it shall embody such finding in an order to be entered
upon its records and at the same time shall enter an order requiring
such public service corporation to make such increase in its water sup-
ply or such increases, changes, modifications and extensions of its
distribution or disposal systems and such changes, modifications and
extensions in its service charges and facilities as may be requisite to
the proper protection of the public health of the community. The
commission shall fix in its order a reasonable time within which such
increases, changes, modifications and extensions shall be completed
and may require reports from such public service corporation of the
progress of the work so ordered.

Section 4. If any such public service corporation shall fail or re-
tuse to comply with any order of the State corporation commission
made pursuant to the provisions of this act, the State, or any person
authorized by chapter two hundred and forty of the Code to institute
such proceeding, may proceed against such corporation by a writ of
quo warranto, or information in the nature of a writ of quo warranto,
in the circuit or corporation court having jurisdiction in the county
or city wherein is located the principal office of the corporation in this
State. The provisions of chapter two hundred and forty of the Code
shall be applicable to any such proceeding except as herein otherwise
provided and if, in such proceeding there shall be a judgment of disso-
lution, the provisions of section thirty-seven hundred and fifty-seven
of the Code shall apply.

Section 5. This act shall apply to the public service corporations
engaged in the business of furnishing water and sewerage facilities to
cities and incorporated towns in this State, and in such counties as are
mentioned in paragraph one of this act at the time that this act be-
comes effective as well as to such as may hereafter be incorporated.

Section 6. Nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to
limit or curtail the existing powers of the State corporation commiis-
sion to require of all public service corporations in all cases the ren-
ditions of adequate service to the public at reasonable rates nor the
existing right of municipalities or individuals to apply to the State
corporation commission for the enforcement of such duties, the pur-
pose of this act being an extension and not a limitation of the powers
of the commission.