2021 -- H 5688

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LC001401

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO COVENTRY SEWER AUTHORITY

     Introduced By: Representatives Serpa, Chippendale, Noret, Nardone, and Morgan

     Date Introduced: February 24, 2021

     Referred To: House Municipal Government & Housing

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 1 of Chapter 330 of the Public Laws of 1997, as amended by Chapters

119 and 140 of the Public Laws of 2006, and Chapters 286 and 300 of the Public Laws of 2019, is

hereby 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 the town necessary for

accomplishing any purpose mentioned in this act. The 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 the town.

     As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires

     "Preliminary plans" shall mean engineering reports that 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

that 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

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

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

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

water that is sufficiently clean and unpolluted to admit of being discharged, without treatment or

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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 that 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 that 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 the 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 town of Coventry may charge the owners

of lands using the sewage works, monetary interest charges in excess of those interest charges

actually paid by the town for the funds it has borrowed for sewage works' purposes, up to a

maximum of one-half of one percent (.05%) of the interest charges paid by the town. The excess

interest charges shall only be used for administrative purposes. The town of Coventry shall not

assess upon the owners of land the costs associated with repaving the roadway upon completion of

any sewage works within the town.

     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. Nothing in this act shall limit or affect the rights

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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

1, 2003, 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 COVENTRY SEWER AUTHORITY

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     This act would prohibit the town of Coventry from assessing the costs of repaving the

roadway upon the completion of any sewage works upon the land owners.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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LC001401

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