Legislation
SECTION 1199-EEEE
Powers of the authority
Public Authorities (PBA) CHAPTER 43-A, ARTICLE 5, TITLE 8-G
* § 1199-eeee. Powers of the authority. Except as otherwise limited by
this title, the authority shall have the power:
1. To sue and be sued;
2. To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure;
3. To borrow money and issue negotiable notes, bonds or other
obligations and to provide for the rights of the holders thereof;
4. To enter into contracts and execute all instruments necessary or
convenient or desirable for the purposes of the authority to carry out
any powers expressly given it in this title;
5. To acquire, by purchase, gift, grant, transfer, contract or lease
or by condemnation pursuant to the eminent domain procedure law within
the district, lease as lessee, hold, and use and to sell, lease as
lessor, transfer or otherwise dispose of, any real or personal property
or any interest therein, within or without the district, as the
authority may deem necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out the
purpose of this title and to pay the costs thereof; provided, however,
that the authority may not condemn real property of a municipality
without the consent of the governing body of such municipality;
6. To purchase or refuse to purchase, in the name of the authority,
any water or sewerage facility, including plants, works,
instrumentalities or parts thereof and appurtenances thereto, lands,
easements, rights in land and water rights, rights-of-way, contract
rights, franchises, permits, approaches, connections, dams, wells,
pumps, reservoirs, water or sewer mains and pipe lines, pumping
stations, treatment facilities, meters, equipment and inventory, or any
other property incidental to and included in such system or part
thereof, and any improvements, extensions and betterments, situated
wholly within the district and to pay the costs thereof; provided,
however, that the authority shall have the power to purchase any source
of supply, supply facility, water supply system, or transmission
facility or any part thereof situated wholly or partly without the
territorial limits of the district, provided the same shall be necessary
in order to supply water within the district; and in connection with the
purchase of such properties, the authority may assume any obligations of
the owner of such properties and, to the extent required by the terms of
any indentures or other instruments under which such obligations were
issued, the authority may assume and agree to perform covenants and
observe the restrictions contained in such instruments; and furthermore
the owner of any properties, which the authority is authorized to
acquire, is hereby authorized to sell or otherwise transfer the same to
the authority, whereupon the authority shall become charged with the
performance of all public duties with respect to such properties with
which such owner was charged and such owner shall become discharged from
the performance thereof, and as a means of so acquiring for such
purpose, the authority may purchase all of the stock of any existing
privately owned water corporation or company and in the case of a sale
or other transfer of properties of a public utility corporation pursuant
to this provision, upon the purchase of the stock of such corporation or
company it shall be lawful to dissolve such corporation within a
reasonable time;
7. To construct, improve, maintain, develop, expand or rehabilitate
water or sewerage facilities and to pay the costs thereof;
8. To operate and manage and to contract for the operation and
management of facilities of the authority;
9. To enter into contracts, and carry out the terms thereof, for the
wholesale provision of water produced by supply facilities constructed,
owned or operated by the authority, to municipalities and private water
companies and to carry out the terms thereof, for the transmission of
water from new or existing supply facilities;
10. To enter into contracts with municipalities or other persons for
the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage;
11. To apply to the appropriate agencies and officials of the federal,
state and local governments for such licenses, permits or approvals of
its plans or projects as it may deem necessary or advisable, and upon
such terms and conditions as it may deem appropriate, to accept, in its
discretion, such licenses, permits or approvals as may be tendered to it
by such agencies and officials;
12. To take all necessary and reasonable actions within the district
to conserve, preserve and protect the water supply to the district,
including the making of plans and studies, the adoption of watershed
rules and regulations, the enforcing of compliance with all current and
future rules and regulations of the state sanitary code with regard to
water supply and usage, the requiring of cross-connection controls, the
providing of educational material and programs to the public, and the
cooperating with water suppliers outside the district to conserve,
preserve and protect the entire water reserve as it is affected within
and outside the authority's supply area;
13. To appoint such officers and employees as are required for the
performance of its duties, to fix and determine their qualifications,
duties and compensation, and to retain or employ counsel, auditors,
engineers, and private consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for
rendering professional or technical services and advice;
14. With the consent of the governing body of a municipality, to use
officers and employees of such municipality and to pay a proper
proportion of the compensation or costs for the services for such
officers or employees;
15. To make plans and studies necessary, convenient or desirable for
the effectuation of the purposes and powers of the authority and to
prepare recommendations in regard thereto;
16. To prepare a water supply emergency plan which may include, but
not be limited to, the following:
(a) establishment of criteria and procedures to determine critical
water levels or safe yield of system;
(b) identification of existing and future sources of water under
normal conditions and emergency conditions;
(c) system capacity and ability to meet peak demand and fire flows
concurrently;
(d) storage capacities;
(e) current condition of present interconnections and identification
of additional interconnections to meet a water supply emergency;
(f) specific action plan to be followed during a water supply
emergency including a phased implementation of the plan;
(g) general water conservation programs and water use reduction
strategies for water supply users;
(h) prioritization of water users;
(i) identification and availability of emergency equipment needed
during a water supply emergency; and
(j) public notification program coordinated with the phased
implementation schedule.
Such plan shall not be adopted until a public hearing on such plan
shall have been held, upon not less than fourteen days' notice thereof
to each customer, either by mail or by publication once in a newspaper
having general circulation within the district; every five years, such
plan shall be reviewed and revised if necessary after a public hearing,
with notice to each customer as aforesaid;
17. To enter upon such lands, waters, or premises as in the judgment
of the authority shall be necessary for the purpose of making surveys,
soundings, borings and examinations to accomplish any purpose authorized
by this title, the authority being liable only for actual damage done;
18. To apply for and to accept any gifts or grants or loans of funds
or property or financial or other aid in any form from the federal
government or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or from the state
or any agency or instrumentality thereof or from any other source, for
any or all of the purposes specified in this title, and to comply,
subject to the provisions of this title, with the terms and conditions
thereof;
19. To supply and sell water for domestic, commercial and public
purposes at retail to individual consumers within the district or to
collect, treat or discharge sewage produced within the district;
20. To purchase water in bulk from any person, private or public
benefit corporation or municipality when necessary or convenient for the
operation of such water system;
21. To produce, develop, distribute and sell water or sewerage
services within or without the territorial limits of the district; and
to purchase water from any municipality, town water district, person,
association or corporation; provided, however, that water and sewerage
services may be sold at retail to individual consumers only within the
district and further provided that in exercising the powers granted by
this title, the authority shall not sell water services in any area
which is served by a water system or sewerage services in any area which
is served by a sewerage system owned or operated by a municipality or
special improvement district unless the governing body of such
municipality or district shall adopt a resolution requesting the
authority to sell water or sewerage services, as the case may be, in
such served areas;
22. To make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs
and rules and regulations for the conservation, preservation and
protection of the authority's water supply and, subject to agreements
with bondholders, rules for the sale of water or collection of sewage
and the collection of rents and charges therefor. A copy of such rules,
regulations and bylaws and any rules and regulations adopted pursuant to
subdivision twelve of this section, and all amendments thereto, duly
certified by the secretary of the authority shall be filed in the office
of the county clerk of the county. In addition, the county legislature
by local law shall have power to prescribe that violation of specific
bylaws, rules, or rules and regulations of the authority, published once
in a newspaper having general circulation within the county, shall be
punishable by fine, not exceeding fifty dollars per violation;
23. To fix rates and collect charges for the use of the facilities of,
or services rendered by, or any commodities furnished by the authority
such as to provide revenues sufficient at all times to pay, as the same
shall become due, the principal and interest on the bonds, notes, or
other obligations of the authority together with the maintenance of
proper reserves therefor, in addition to paying as the same shall become
due the expense of operating and maintaining the properties of the
authority together with proper maintenance reserves, capital reserves,
repair reserves, tax stabilization reserves and other contingency
reserves, and all other obligations and indebtedness of the authority;
provided however, no such rates or charges shall be changed until a
public hearing on such changes shall have been held upon not less than
fourteen days notice thereof to each customer, either by mail or by
publication once in a newspaper having general circulation within the
bounds of the authority;
24. To enter into cooperative agreements with other authorities,
municipalities, counties, cities, towns, villages, water districts,
utility companies, individuals, firms or corporations, within or without
the territorial limits of the district for the interconnection of
facilities, the provision, exchange or interchange of services and
commodities, the conservation, preservation and protection of the
authority's water reserve as it is affected within and outside the
authority's supply area, and within the territorial limits of the
district to enter into a contract for the construction, operation and
maintenance of a water supply and distribution system or sewerage system
or facilities by the authority for any municipality having power to
construct and develop a water supply and distribution or sewerage system
or facilities, upon such terms and conditions as shall be determined to
be reasonable including, but not limited to, the reimbursement of all
costs of such construction, or for any other lawful purposes necessary
or desirable to effect the purposes of this title;
25. To provide for the discontinuance or disconnection of water or
sewerage service, or both, as the case may be, for nonpayment of fees,
rates, rents or other charges therefor imposed by the authority,
provided such discontinuance or disconnection of any water or sewerage
service, or both, as the case may be, shall not be carried out except in
the manner and upon the notice as is required of a waterworks
corporation pursuant to subdivisions three-a, three-b and three-c of
section eighty-nine-b and section one hundred sixteen of the public
service law;
26. To act as a county water agency in accordance with the provisions
of article five-A of the county law;
27. For the purposes of article fifteen-A of the executive law only
the authority shall be deemed a state agency as that term is defined in
such article and its contracts for procurement, design, construction,
services and materials shall be deemed state contracts within the
meaning of that term as set forth in such article; and
28. To do all things necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out
its purposes and for all exercise of the powers granted in this title.
* NB There are 2 § 1199-eeee's
this title, the authority shall have the power:
1. To sue and be sued;
2. To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure;
3. To borrow money and issue negotiable notes, bonds or other
obligations and to provide for the rights of the holders thereof;
4. To enter into contracts and execute all instruments necessary or
convenient or desirable for the purposes of the authority to carry out
any powers expressly given it in this title;
5. To acquire, by purchase, gift, grant, transfer, contract or lease
or by condemnation pursuant to the eminent domain procedure law within
the district, lease as lessee, hold, and use and to sell, lease as
lessor, transfer or otherwise dispose of, any real or personal property
or any interest therein, within or without the district, as the
authority may deem necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out the
purpose of this title and to pay the costs thereof; provided, however,
that the authority may not condemn real property of a municipality
without the consent of the governing body of such municipality;
6. To purchase or refuse to purchase, in the name of the authority,
any water or sewerage facility, including plants, works,
instrumentalities or parts thereof and appurtenances thereto, lands,
easements, rights in land and water rights, rights-of-way, contract
rights, franchises, permits, approaches, connections, dams, wells,
pumps, reservoirs, water or sewer mains and pipe lines, pumping
stations, treatment facilities, meters, equipment and inventory, or any
other property incidental to and included in such system or part
thereof, and any improvements, extensions and betterments, situated
wholly within the district and to pay the costs thereof; provided,
however, that the authority shall have the power to purchase any source
of supply, supply facility, water supply system, or transmission
facility or any part thereof situated wholly or partly without the
territorial limits of the district, provided the same shall be necessary
in order to supply water within the district; and in connection with the
purchase of such properties, the authority may assume any obligations of
the owner of such properties and, to the extent required by the terms of
any indentures or other instruments under which such obligations were
issued, the authority may assume and agree to perform covenants and
observe the restrictions contained in such instruments; and furthermore
the owner of any properties, which the authority is authorized to
acquire, is hereby authorized to sell or otherwise transfer the same to
the authority, whereupon the authority shall become charged with the
performance of all public duties with respect to such properties with
which such owner was charged and such owner shall become discharged from
the performance thereof, and as a means of so acquiring for such
purpose, the authority may purchase all of the stock of any existing
privately owned water corporation or company and in the case of a sale
or other transfer of properties of a public utility corporation pursuant
to this provision, upon the purchase of the stock of such corporation or
company it shall be lawful to dissolve such corporation within a
reasonable time;
7. To construct, improve, maintain, develop, expand or rehabilitate
water or sewerage facilities and to pay the costs thereof;
8. To operate and manage and to contract for the operation and
management of facilities of the authority;
9. To enter into contracts, and carry out the terms thereof, for the
wholesale provision of water produced by supply facilities constructed,
owned or operated by the authority, to municipalities and private water
companies and to carry out the terms thereof, for the transmission of
water from new or existing supply facilities;
10. To enter into contracts with municipalities or other persons for
the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage;
11. To apply to the appropriate agencies and officials of the federal,
state and local governments for such licenses, permits or approvals of
its plans or projects as it may deem necessary or advisable, and upon
such terms and conditions as it may deem appropriate, to accept, in its
discretion, such licenses, permits or approvals as may be tendered to it
by such agencies and officials;
12. To take all necessary and reasonable actions within the district
to conserve, preserve and protect the water supply to the district,
including the making of plans and studies, the adoption of watershed
rules and regulations, the enforcing of compliance with all current and
future rules and regulations of the state sanitary code with regard to
water supply and usage, the requiring of cross-connection controls, the
providing of educational material and programs to the public, and the
cooperating with water suppliers outside the district to conserve,
preserve and protect the entire water reserve as it is affected within
and outside the authority's supply area;
13. To appoint such officers and employees as are required for the
performance of its duties, to fix and determine their qualifications,
duties and compensation, and to retain or employ counsel, auditors,
engineers, and private consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for
rendering professional or technical services and advice;
14. With the consent of the governing body of a municipality, to use
officers and employees of such municipality and to pay a proper
proportion of the compensation or costs for the services for such
officers or employees;
15. To make plans and studies necessary, convenient or desirable for
the effectuation of the purposes and powers of the authority and to
prepare recommendations in regard thereto;
16. To prepare a water supply emergency plan which may include, but
not be limited to, the following:
(a) establishment of criteria and procedures to determine critical
water levels or safe yield of system;
(b) identification of existing and future sources of water under
normal conditions and emergency conditions;
(c) system capacity and ability to meet peak demand and fire flows
concurrently;
(d) storage capacities;
(e) current condition of present interconnections and identification
of additional interconnections to meet a water supply emergency;
(f) specific action plan to be followed during a water supply
emergency including a phased implementation of the plan;
(g) general water conservation programs and water use reduction
strategies for water supply users;
(h) prioritization of water users;
(i) identification and availability of emergency equipment needed
during a water supply emergency; and
(j) public notification program coordinated with the phased
implementation schedule.
Such plan shall not be adopted until a public hearing on such plan
shall have been held, upon not less than fourteen days' notice thereof
to each customer, either by mail or by publication once in a newspaper
having general circulation within the district; every five years, such
plan shall be reviewed and revised if necessary after a public hearing,
with notice to each customer as aforesaid;
17. To enter upon such lands, waters, or premises as in the judgment
of the authority shall be necessary for the purpose of making surveys,
soundings, borings and examinations to accomplish any purpose authorized
by this title, the authority being liable only for actual damage done;
18. To apply for and to accept any gifts or grants or loans of funds
or property or financial or other aid in any form from the federal
government or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or from the state
or any agency or instrumentality thereof or from any other source, for
any or all of the purposes specified in this title, and to comply,
subject to the provisions of this title, with the terms and conditions
thereof;
19. To supply and sell water for domestic, commercial and public
purposes at retail to individual consumers within the district or to
collect, treat or discharge sewage produced within the district;
20. To purchase water in bulk from any person, private or public
benefit corporation or municipality when necessary or convenient for the
operation of such water system;
21. To produce, develop, distribute and sell water or sewerage
services within or without the territorial limits of the district; and
to purchase water from any municipality, town water district, person,
association or corporation; provided, however, that water and sewerage
services may be sold at retail to individual consumers only within the
district and further provided that in exercising the powers granted by
this title, the authority shall not sell water services in any area
which is served by a water system or sewerage services in any area which
is served by a sewerage system owned or operated by a municipality or
special improvement district unless the governing body of such
municipality or district shall adopt a resolution requesting the
authority to sell water or sewerage services, as the case may be, in
such served areas;
22. To make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs
and rules and regulations for the conservation, preservation and
protection of the authority's water supply and, subject to agreements
with bondholders, rules for the sale of water or collection of sewage
and the collection of rents and charges therefor. A copy of such rules,
regulations and bylaws and any rules and regulations adopted pursuant to
subdivision twelve of this section, and all amendments thereto, duly
certified by the secretary of the authority shall be filed in the office
of the county clerk of the county. In addition, the county legislature
by local law shall have power to prescribe that violation of specific
bylaws, rules, or rules and regulations of the authority, published once
in a newspaper having general circulation within the county, shall be
punishable by fine, not exceeding fifty dollars per violation;
23. To fix rates and collect charges for the use of the facilities of,
or services rendered by, or any commodities furnished by the authority
such as to provide revenues sufficient at all times to pay, as the same
shall become due, the principal and interest on the bonds, notes, or
other obligations of the authority together with the maintenance of
proper reserves therefor, in addition to paying as the same shall become
due the expense of operating and maintaining the properties of the
authority together with proper maintenance reserves, capital reserves,
repair reserves, tax stabilization reserves and other contingency
reserves, and all other obligations and indebtedness of the authority;
provided however, no such rates or charges shall be changed until a
public hearing on such changes shall have been held upon not less than
fourteen days notice thereof to each customer, either by mail or by
publication once in a newspaper having general circulation within the
bounds of the authority;
24. To enter into cooperative agreements with other authorities,
municipalities, counties, cities, towns, villages, water districts,
utility companies, individuals, firms or corporations, within or without
the territorial limits of the district for the interconnection of
facilities, the provision, exchange or interchange of services and
commodities, the conservation, preservation and protection of the
authority's water reserve as it is affected within and outside the
authority's supply area, and within the territorial limits of the
district to enter into a contract for the construction, operation and
maintenance of a water supply and distribution system or sewerage system
or facilities by the authority for any municipality having power to
construct and develop a water supply and distribution or sewerage system
or facilities, upon such terms and conditions as shall be determined to
be reasonable including, but not limited to, the reimbursement of all
costs of such construction, or for any other lawful purposes necessary
or desirable to effect the purposes of this title;
25. To provide for the discontinuance or disconnection of water or
sewerage service, or both, as the case may be, for nonpayment of fees,
rates, rents or other charges therefor imposed by the authority,
provided such discontinuance or disconnection of any water or sewerage
service, or both, as the case may be, shall not be carried out except in
the manner and upon the notice as is required of a waterworks
corporation pursuant to subdivisions three-a, three-b and three-c of
section eighty-nine-b and section one hundred sixteen of the public
service law;
26. To act as a county water agency in accordance with the provisions
of article five-A of the county law;
27. For the purposes of article fifteen-A of the executive law only
the authority shall be deemed a state agency as that term is defined in
such article and its contracts for procurement, design, construction,
services and materials shall be deemed state contracts within the
meaning of that term as set forth in such article; and
28. To do all things necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out
its purposes and for all exercise of the powers granted in this title.
* NB There are 2 § 1199-eeee's