2018 -- S 2085

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LC003348

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2018

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO AN AMENDMENT OF CHAPTER 330 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS OF 1997

ENTITLED "AN ACT TO CREATE A SEWER AUTHORITY FOR THE TOWN OF

COVENTRY AND TO AUTHORIZE SAID TOWN TO PLAN, CONSTRUCT, FINANCE,

OPERATE AND MAINTAIN SEWAGE WORKS"

     Introduced By: Senators Raptakis, and Kettle

     Date Introduced: January 18, 2018

     Referred To: Senate Housing & Municipal Government

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 1 of Chapter 330 of the public laws of 1997 as amended entitled,

"An Act to Create A Sewer Authority For The Town Of Coventry And To Authorize Said Town,

To Plan, Construct, Finance, Operate And Maintain Sewage Works" is further amended to read as

follows:

     Sec.1. The Town of Coventry is authorized and empowered in accordance with the

provisions of this act, to plan, lay out, construct, finance, operate and maintain sewage works for

a part or the whole of its territory and for such purposes to take by eminent domain or otherwise

any lands, water rights, rights-of-way, or easements, public or private, in said town necessary for

accomplishing any purpose mentioned in this act. Such sewage works may include sewers and

sewer service connections, pumping stations, sewage treatment works, sewage disposal works,

and other works essential to the proper collection and disposal of the sewage of said town.

     As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:

     "Preliminary plans" shall mean engineering reports which shall conform to all applicable

state and federal guidelines and shall include detailed scope and area to be considered with

recommendations, preliminary and feasibility investigation, environmental assessment, cost

studies, economic comparisons of alternatives and all application and pre-application work and

other work necessary or desirable before undertaking working plans.

     "Working plans" shall mean final design plans of facilities, detailed construction

drawings, specifications, detailed estimate of cost of construction, and shall include all other

engineering work which may be required or advisable for actual construction of sewage works.

     "Town" means the Town of Coventry.

     "Council" means the town council of the Town of Coventry.

     "Highways" means any state or other highway and any public street, alley, park, parkway,

driveway, bridge or public place.

     "Sewage works" means all constructions for collection, transportation, pumping,

treatment and final disposal of sewage.

     "Common sewer" means a sewer in which all abutters have equal rights of entrance and.

use.

      "Force main" means a sewer wherein sewage is moved by pressure.

     "Sewer service connection" means a pipe to convey sewage and wastes from a building to

a common sewer.

     "Sewage" shall mean wastewater, water-carried wastes, or a combination of them,

discharged into and conveyed by sewers or intended or customarily so discharged and conveyed.

Sewage may be further classified as follows:

     "Sanitary sewage" shall mean the common wastewater and water-carried wastes from

human dwellings and from toilet and lavatory fixtures, kitchens, laundries, and similar facilities

of business and industrial buildings. In general, sanitary sewage shall not include storm water

from roofs, yards, streets or open spaces, water from land surfaces or brooks, clean waste

overflows from springs, wells, or subsoil drainage, large volumes of clean water from air

conditioning or other cooling or condensing facilities, clean wastewater from hydraulically

operated contrivances and those wastes included within the definition of "industrial wastes" next

following.

     "Industrial wastes" shall include the liquid or water-carried wastes of any industrial

process not clearly included within the definitions of sanitary sewage, storm water, cooling water

or subsoil drainage herein. In general, wastewaters carrying any quantity of oils, grease, fats,

abrasives, chemicals, residues of manufacturing processes, wastes from commercial food

preserving or canning, from slaughterhouses or meat processing plants, and similar substances,

whether dissolved, in suspension, or mechanically carried by water, shall be considered as

industrial wastes.

     "Storm water" shall include the runoff or discharge of rain and melted snow or other

clean water from roofs, surfaces of public or private lands or elsewhere. For most purposes within

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the scope of this act, storm water shall not include the flow of any natural brook, rivulet or stream

even if the source of such water is storm runoff from land or other property once that runoff has

entered the channel of such brook or natural watercourse. In general, storm water shall include

only water which is sufficiently clean and unpolluted to admit of being discharged, without

treatment or purification, into any natural open stream or watercourse without offense.

     "Cooling water" shall include the clean wastewater from air conditioning, industrial

cooling, condensing and similar apparatus and from hydraulically powered equipment. In general,

cooling water will include only water which is sufficiently clean and unpolluted to admit of being

discharged, without treatment or purification, into any natural open stream or watercourse without

offense.

     "Seepage" or "subsoil drainage" shall include water from the soil percolating into subsoil

drains and through foundation walls, basement floors, or underground pipes or from similar

sources.

     "Lateral sewer" means a sewer which does not receive the sewage from any other

common sewer.

     "Submain sewer" means a sewer into which the sewage from two (2) or more lateral

sewers is discharged.

     "Main sewer" means a sewer into which the sewage from two (2) or more submain

sewers is discharged.

     "Land" means and includes any land, including building and other improvements thereon,

estate, riparial or other right, easement, interest or waterway.

     The Town of Coventry may provide for the construction of sewers and for other sewage

works for said town and may raise funds therefor by borrowing or otherwise, and for that purpose

may issue bonds or notes of the town in accordance with the provisions hereinafter stated or

under other authority.

     The town council shall provide that annual charges shall be made upon the owners of the

lands using the sewage works and that sewer assessments shall be made upon the owners of lands

for which the use of sewage works is available. The receipts from annual charges and sewer

assessments shall be appropriated for and applied to the payment of the charges and expenses

incident to the planning, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the sewage works,

and to the payment of principal costs for any bonds or notes issued for sewage works. Prior to the

town of Coventry appropriating any monies from its regular town tax to fund its obligations under

any agreement relating to the wastewater system sewers or projects, an all-day referendum must

be held, and the town must receive approval from the registered voters prior to the utilization of

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any regular town tax funds for such obligations.

     Nothing in this act shall limit or affect the rights or obligations of the town of Coventry,

including obligations of the town acting by and through its financial town meeting or its town

council, to appropriate monies from its regular town tax to fund its obligations under the

intermunicipal agreement in wastewater services between the town of West Warwick and the

town of Coventry, as amended and restated from time to time, and the Loan and Trust Agreement

among the Rhode Island economic development corporation, the town of Coventry and J.P.

Morgan Trust Company, National Association dated as of December 31, 01213, as amended from

time to time.

     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO AN AMENDMENT OF CHAPTER 330 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS OF 1997

ENTITLED "AN ACT TO CREATE A SEWER AUTHORITY FOR THE TOWN OF

COVENTRY AND TO AUTHORIZE SAID TOWN TO PLAN, CONSTRUCT, FINANCE,

OPERATE AND MAINTAIN SEWAGE WORKS"

***

     This act would amend the town of Coventry's sewer system enabling legislation to allow

town to appropriate monies from its regular town tax to fund wastewater system projects or

sewers only after voter approval resulting from an all-day referendum.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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