CHAPTER 402

AN ACT to amend and reenact §§ 15-764.12, as amended, and 15-764.13 of
the Code of Virginia, relating to powers of water and sewer author-
ities and imposing certain limitations thereon.

{H 372]

Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 15-764.12, as amended, and 15-764.13 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 15-764.12. Each authority created hereunder shall be deemed to
be an instrumentality exercising public and essential governmental func-
tions to provide for the public health and welfare, and each such author-
ity is hereby authorized and empowered:

(a) To have existence for term of fifty years as a corporation;

(b) To adopt by-laws for the regulation of its affairs and the con-
duct of its business;

(ec) To adopt an official seal and alter the same at pleasure;

(d) To maintain an office at such place or places as it may designate;

(e) To sue and be sued;

(f) To acquire, purchase, lease as lessee, construct, reconstruct, im-
prove, extend, operate and maintain any water system, or sewer system,
or sewage disposal system, or a garbage and refuse collection and dis-
posal system or any combination of such systems within or partly within
and partly without one or more of the political subdivision or subdivisions
by action of whose governing body or governing bodies the authority
was created, and to acquire by gift, purchase or the exercise of the right
of eminent domain lands or rights in land or water rights in connection
therewith; and to sell, lease as lessor, transfer or dispose of any property
or interest therein at any time acquired by it; provided, * that the author-
ity shall have the same power of eminent domain as provided for in § 15-749
of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, except that the authority shall
not take by condemnation proceedings any property belonging to any
corporation possessing the power of eminent domain, unless, after hear-
ing all parties in interest, the State Corporation Commission shall certify
that a public necessity or that an essential public convenience shall so
require, and shall give its permission thereto, and except that the au-
thority shall not take by condemnation proceedings less than the whole of
the property owned by any corporation possessing the power of eminent
domain unless the property taken is not essential to the purpose of the
corporation; and provided, that the authority shall not have the power
to condemn any property owned or operated by any corporation which is
subject to regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission; and, pro-
vided further, that no property or any interest or estate therein owned by
any county, city, town or other political subdivision of the State shall be
acquired by the exercise of the power of eminent domain without the con-
sent of the governing body of such county, city, town or political sub-
division; except as otherwise herein provided, each authority is hereby
vested with the same authority to exercise the power of eminent domain
as is vested in the State Highway Commissioner of Virginia;

(g) To issue revenue bonds of the authority, such bonds to be payable
solely from revenues to pay all or a part of the cost of a water system,
sewer system, or sewage disposal system, or a garbage and refuse col-
lection and disposal system, or any combination of such systems;

(h) To combine any water system, sewer system, sewage disposal
system, or garbage and refuse collection and disposal system as a single
system for the purpose of operation and financing;

(i) To fix, charge and collect rates, fees and charges for the use of or
for the services furnished by any system operated by the authority. Such
rates, fees, rents and charges may be charged to and collected from
any person contracting for the same, or from the owner or lessee or tenant,
or some or all of them, who uses or occupies any real estate which is
served by any such system; and in the case of a sewer system or sewage
disposal system such real estate from or on which originates, sewage or
industrial wastes, or either, which have entered the sewer or sewage
disposal system; and the owner or lessee or tenant of any such real estate
shall pay such rates, fees, rents and charges to the authority, or its agent,
at the time when and place where the same may be due and payable;

(j) To enter into contracts with the federal government, the Com-
monwealth of Virginia, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or with
any unit, private corporation, copartnership, association, or individual
providing for or relating to the furnishing of services and facilities of
any water system, sewer system, sewage disposal system, or garbage
and refuse collection and disposal system of the authority or in connec-
tion with the services and facilities rendered by any such system owned or
controlled by the federal government or this Commonwealth, any agency
or instrumentality thereof, and any unit, private corporation, copartner-
ship, association or individuals;

(k) To contract with any municipality, county, corporation, in-
dividual or any public authority or unit of this or any adjoining state,
on such terms as the said authority shall deem proper, for the construc-
tion and operation of any project which is partly in this Commonwealth
and partly in such adjoining state;

(1) To make and enter into all contracts or agreements, as the
authority may determine, which are necessary or incidental to the per-
formance of its duties and to the execution of the powers granted by this
chapter, including contracts with any federal agency or with any unit, on
such terms and conditions as the authority may approve, relating to (1)
the use by such agency or by such unit or the inhabitants thereof of any
water system, sewer system, sewage disposal system, or garbage and re-
fuse collection and disposal system acquired or constructed by the author-
ity under this chapter, or the services therefrom or the facilities thereof,
or (2) the use by the authority of the services or facilities of any water
system, sewer system, sewage disposal system, or garbage and refuse col-
lection and disposal system owned or operated by an owner other than the
authority. Any such contract shall be subject to such provisions, limita-
tions or conditions as may be contained in the resolution of the authority
authorizing revenue bonds of the authority or the provisions of any trust
agreement securing such bonds. Any such contract may provide for the
collecting of fees, rates or charges for the services and facilities rendered
to a unit or to the inhabitants thereof, by such unit or by its agents or by
the agents of the authority, and for the enforcement of delinquent charges
for such services and facilities. The provisions of any such contract and of
any ordinance or resolution of the governing body of a unit enacted pursu-
ant thereto shall be irrepealable so long as any of the revenue bonds issued
under the authority of this chapter shall be outstanding and unpaid, and
the provisions of any such contract, and of any ordinance or resolution
enacted pursuant thereto shall be and be deemed to be for the benefit of
such bondholders. The aggregate of any fees, rates or charges which shall
be required to be collected pursuant to any such contract or any ordinance
or resolution enacted thereunder shall be sufficient to pay all obligations
which may be assumed by the other contracting party. Each water com-
pany, which is a public utility supplying water to the owners, lessees or
tenants of rea! estate which is or will be served by any sewer or sewage
disposal system of an authority is authorized to act as the billing and
collecting agent of the authority for any rates, fees, rents or charges
imposed by the authority for the service rendered by such sewer or sewage
disposal system and shall furnish to the authority copies of its regular
periodic meter reading and water consumption records and other pertinent
data as may be required for the authority to act as its own billing and
collecting agent. The authority shall pay to such water company the
reasonable additional cost of clerical services and other expenses incurred
by the water company in rendering such services to the authority. Upon
the inability of an authority and such water company to agree upon the
terms and conditions under which the water company shall act as the
billing and collecting agent of the authority, either or both may petition
the State Corporation Commission for a determination of the terms and
conditions under which the water company shall act as the billing and
collecting agent of the authority. In the event that such water company
acts as the billing and collecting agent of an authority it shall set forth
separately on its bills the rates, fees, rents or charges imposed by the
authority, but both the water and sewage disposal charges shall be payable
to and collected by the water company, and payment of either shall be
refused unless both shall be paid. The authority shall pay to the water
company the cost of shutting off any water service on account of nonpay-
ment of the sewage disposal charge. In the event of such discontinuance
of water service the same shall not be reestablished until such time as the
sewage disposal charge shall have been paid;

(m) To enter upon, use, occupy, and dig up any street, road, highway
or private or public lands necessary to be entered upon, used or occupied in
connection with the acquisition, construction or improvement, maintenance
or operation of a water system, sewer system, sewage disposal system, or
garbage and refuse collection and disposal system, subject, however, to
such reasonable local police regulation as may be established by the gov-
erning body of any unit having jurisdiction in the particular respect. The
governing body of any unit, notwithstanding any contrary provision of
law, is hereby authorized and empowered to transfer jurisdiction over, to
lease, lend, grant or convey, to the authority upon the request of the author-
ity, upon such terms and conditions as the governing body of such unit
may agree with the authority as reasonable and fair, such real or personal
property as may be necessary or desirable in connection with the acquisi-
tion, construction, improvement, operation or maintenance of a water
system, sewer system, sewage disposal system or garbage and refuse col-
lection and disposal system by the authority including public roads and
other property already devoted to public use. The Commonwealth of Vir-
ginia hereby consents to the use of all lands above or under water and
owned or controlled by it which are necessary for the construction,
improvement, operation or maintenance of any such system; except that
the use of any portion between the right of way limits of any primary or
secondary highway in this State shall be subject to the approval of the State
Highway Commissioner. Whenever any railroad tracks, pipes, poles, wires,
conduits or other structures or facilities which are located in, along, across,
over or under any public road, street, highway, alley or other public right
of way shall become an obstruction to, interfere with or be endangered
by the construction, operation or maintenance of any system of the
authority the governmental unit having ownership, control or jurisdiction
over such public road, street, highway, alley or other public right of way
may, as the exercise of an essential governmental function, order the safe-
guarding, maintaining, relocating, rebuilding, removing and replacing of
such railroad tracks, pipes, poles, wires, conduits or other structures or
facilities by the owner thereof at the expense of the authority, and subject
to the provisions of § 25-233 of the Code of Virginia; and

(n) In the event of any annexation by a municipality not a member
of the authority of lands, areas, or territory served by the authority, to
continue to do business, exercise its jurisdiction over its properties and
facilities in and upon or over such lands, areas or territory as long as any
bonds or indebtedness remain outstanding or unpaid, or any contracts or
other obligations remain in force.

§ 15-764.18. (a) None of the powers granted by this chapter shall
be exercised in the construction, improvement, maintenance, extension or
operation of any project or projects which in whole or in part shall dupli-
cate * existing utilities, public or private, serving substantially the same
purposes and area. The municipality or municipalities, county or counties
organizing such an authority may, in the resolution or ordinance signifying
their intention so to do, or from time to time by subsequent resolution or
ordinance, specify the project or projects to be undertaken by the said
authority, and no other projects shall be undertaken by the said authority
than those so specified. If the municipal or county authorities organizing
an authority fail to specify the project or projects to be undertaken, then
oe authority shall be deemed to have all the powers granted by this
chapter.

(b) No governing body which shall have created an authority under
the provisions of this chapter shall thereafter create any other authority
serving the whole or any part of the same area. No governing body which
shall have joined with any other governing body or governing bodies in
the creation of an authority under the provisions of this chapter shall
thereafter create or join in the creation of any other authority unless such
other governing body or governing bodies shall consent thereto by
ordinance or resolution.