89-e. Filing of approval for construction; approval of initial rate schedules; certificate for parallel or duplicate lines. 1. No water-works corporation shall begin construction of a water system or extension thereof or exercise any rights or privileges under any franchise hereafter granted, or under any franchise heretofore granted but not heretofore actually exercised, or the exercise of which shall have been suspended for more than one year, without first filing with the public service commission a certified copy of the order, required by law, of the department of environmental conservation approving the same.
2. No water-works corporation shall begin operation of a water system or extension thereof, supply water or charge for service without first filing with the commission, at least one hundred twenty days prior to the date upon which service is to begin, a schedule of rates, charges, rules, regulations and such further information as the commission may require showing the basis for the corporation's determination of its proposed rate. The commission shall have power to approve or disapprove such proposed rate, or to condition an approval upon the corporation's use of a specific method of cost apportionment, for both rate and accounting purposes, among related enterprises or operations. The commission shall take final action on the proposed schedule of rates within two hundred forty days after it is filed or after information required by the commission is furnished, whichever is later, provided that within one hundred twenty days after the schedule is filed or information received, whichever is later, the schedule of rates filed by the corporation shall be allowed to become effective, either finally or on a temporary basis, on such terms as may be imposed by the commission in accordance with the procedures set forth in section one hundred thirteen of this chapter. A water-works corporation shall provide notice to the public of such proposed schedule of rates once in each week for four successive weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the county or counties containing territory affected by the proposed schedule of rates, which notice shall plainly state the proposed schedule of rates. Publication must be completed prior to the effective date of the proposed schedule of rates unless the commission shall otherwise order. The commission may, for good cause shown, waive publication of notice to the public under conditions it may prescribe. If such corporation is affiliated with a developer that sells or proposes to sell new homes that would receive service from the water system, notice of the proposed schedule of rates shall be included with other informational materials supplied to potential purchasers of such homes.
3. No main or conduit of an existing water supply company shall be paralleled or duplicated unless and until there shall have first been obtained a certificate of convenience and necessity from the commission.
Last modified: February 3, 2019