N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 1149-d: Powers of the authority

§ 1149-d. Powers of the authority. 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 prior to the acquisition

of any existing water or sewer district, the authority shall discuss and

consider the status of current employees of the water or sewer district;

and further 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 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 or 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 or 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 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 eleven 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 board of supervisors

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 as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction;

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 of 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, other contingency reserves, and all other obligations

and indebtedness 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 by the authority

for any municipality having power to construct and develop a water

supply and distribution system 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 the supply

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. To do all things necessary, convenient or desirable to carry out

its purposes and for all exercise of the powers granted in this title.