CHAPTER 130

An Act to amend and reenact § 15-764.12, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to powers of water and sewer authorities.

[S 212]
Approved February 27, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 15-764.12, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, 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
functions to provide for the public health and welfare, and each such
authority is hereby authorized and empowered:

(a) To have existence for a 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;

(c) 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,
improve, extend, operate and maintain any water svstem, or sewer system,
or sewage disposal system, or a garbage and refuse collection and dis-
posal system or any combination of such systems within, without, 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, or who may hereafter join such authority,
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,
within, without, 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, or who may hereafter join
such authority; and to sell, lease as lessor, transfer or dispose of all or
any part of any property, veal, personal or mixed, or interest therein at
any time acquired by it; provided, that the authority shall have the same
power of eminent domain and shall follow the same procedure therefor
as provided in §§ 15-749 and 15-754 of the Code of Virginia, except that
the authority shall not take by condemnation proceedings any property
belonging to any corporation possessing the power of eminent domain,
unless, after hearing all parties in interest, the State Corporation Com-
mission 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 authority 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; or unless the authority, as a part of
the properties taken, takes the whole of the property owned by the cor-
poration located within the county, city or town which created the au-
thority or which is a member thereof; 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 Com.
merce Commission; and provided further, that no property or any in-
terest 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 consent of the governing body of such
county, city, town or political subdivision; 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.

(zg) To issue revenue bonds of the authority, such bonds to be pay-
able 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 collection
and disposal system, or any combination of such systems; provided, that
no authority operating in any city having a population in excess of fifty
thousand but not in excess of seventy-five thousand shall hereafter un-
dertake any project not heretofore specified by the enabling ordinance
of said city or issue bonds therefor, unless such undertaking is approved
by a majority of the qualified voters in the city affected voting in a referen-
dum thereon; such referendum shall be called by the governing body of
said city, in the manner provided by § 15-764.6;

(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;

(h-1) To borrow at such rates of interest not to exceed six per
centum per annum as the authority may determine from individuals,
partnerships, or private or municipal corporations, to issue its notes,
bonds or other obligations, and secure any of its obligations by mortgage
or pledge of all or any of its property and income. Any county, city,
or town which has formed or joined an authority may lend money to
such authority.

(1) 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 connection
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 individual;

(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 au-
thority may determine, which are necessary or incidental to the perform-
ance 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 refuse collection and disposal system acquired or constructed by the
authority 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 collection and disposal system owned or operated by an owner
other than the authority. Any such contract shall be subject to such
provisions, limitations or conditions as may be contained in the resolution
of the authority authorizing revenue bonds of the authority or the pro-
visions 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 en-
forcement 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 pursuant 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 company, which
is a public utility supplying water to the owners, lessees or tenants of
real 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 collect-
ing 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 pay-
able 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 non-
payment of the sewage disposal charge. In the event of such discontinu-
ance 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, high-
way or private or public lands necessary to be entered upon, used or
occupied in connection with the acquisition, construction or improve-
ment, 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 governing 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 authority, 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 acquisition, construction, improvement, opera-
tion or maintenance of a water system, sewer system, sewage disposal
system or garbage and refuse collection and disposal system by the au-
thority including public roads and other property already devoted to
public use. The Commonwealth of Virginia 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 mainte-
nance 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 struc-
tures 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 con-
struction, 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 safeguard-
ing, maintaining, relocating, rebuilding, removing and replacing of such
railroad tracks, pipes, poles, wires, conduits or other structures or facili-
ties 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 con-
tracts or other obligations remain in force.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.