N.Y. Town Law § 190-g: Water quality treatment districts

§ 190-g. Water quality treatment districts. 1. The town board of any

town is hereby authorized to establish or extend a water quality

treatment district, or more than one such district, for the purposes of

(a) procuring by purchase, lease or other means, and installing water

quality treatment units or devices, if required; providing periodic

testing and monitoring of raw and finished water from private wells in

the district; monitoring, modifying, repairing, replacing, operation and

maintenance, regenerating water quality treatment units and devices and

the administering of the treatment and disposal of residuals generated

in the operation of the district pursuant to rules and regulations

adopted by the public health and health planning council under section

two hundred twenty-five of the public health law; (b) assisting local,

state and federal agencies and officials in efforts to establish causes

of, and implement remedial measures to reduce, water contamination and

protect future water resources within the district; (c) conduct public

meetings and issue an annual public report to members of the district on

the operation, financial position and water quality condition of said

district.

2. A water quality treatment district established hereunder may

consist of noncontiguous or contiguous benefited parcels of property and

shall be created by a resolution of the town board, upon petition after

a public hearing. The petition may be executed and acknowledged by one

or more of the owners of taxable real property of record situated within

the town whose private well water is contaminated and at the time the

petition is executed and acknowledged, notice and copy of such petition

shall be submitted to the state department of health. Upon a petition

signed and acknowledged the town board may, or on its own motion, after

a public hearing, assemble data relating to the number and location of

private wells within the town, the contaminants present in the water

supply in such town's private wells, (for the purposes of this section,

"contaminants" shall mean those substances found in amounts or

concentrations which violate federal, state or local laws, guidelines or

rules and regulations relating to drinking water or which may pose a

risk to public health), the extent of contamination of the water supply

in the town's private wells, and the availability of appropriate

treatment technologies for the contaminants found to be present, or

which are reasonably expected to be found, currently or in the future,

in the water supply in the town's private wells. Upon presentation of

the petition or on its own motion, the town board may direct or cause

maps and plans to be prepared, provided however, that if the owner or

owners of taxable real property undertake to furnish or pay the cost of

such maps and plans at his or their cost and expense, the town board

shall accept or prepare the same or the town board may adopt a

resolution, subject to a permissive referendum, appropriating a specific

amount to pay the cost of preparing a general map and plan for providing

water quality treatment units or devices and related services. The town

board may determine that such maps and plans shall be prepared by or

under the supervision of town officers and employees to be designated by

the town board, or by persons to be employed for that purpose, or the

town board may contract for the preparation thereof, within the

limitations of the amount appropriated. Except as otherwise provided

herein, the expense incurred for the preparation of such maps and plans

shall be a town charge, and shall be assessed, levied and collected in

the same manner as other town charges. If the town board shall

thereafter establish or extend a water quality treatment district, the

expense incurred by the town for the preparation of the maps and plans

therefor shall be deemed to be part of the cost of such improvement, and

the town shall be reimbursed the amount paid therefor, or such portion

of that amount which the town board, at the public hearing held pursuant

to section one hundred ninety-four of this chapter, shall allocate

against such district. Nothing in this section contained, or in any

other section of this act, shall be construed to prevent the financing,

in whole or in part, of expenditures by private sources, grants or by

other means. All such maps and plans shall be filed with the town clerk.

Such maps and plans shall show (1) the location of all benefited parcels

of properties with water quality treatment units or devices installed

prior to the formation of the district and/or those properties requiring

installation of water quality treatment units or devices and the mode

and frequency of testing, monitoring, modifying if required, operation

and maintenance, regenerating of such water quality treatment units or

devices and the administering of the treatment and disposal of residuals

and any other requirements pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by

the public health and health planning council under section two hundred

twenty-five of the public health law, and (2) estimates of the costs of

procurement, installation, monitoring, testing, modifying, if required,

operation and maintenance, regenerating of such water quality treatment

units or devices and the treatment and disposal of residuals, and the

method of financing the same. Any water quality treatment unit or device

which has been installed prior to the formation of the district must be

approved pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by the public health

and health planning council under section two hundred twenty-five of the

public health law, prior to acceptance of such unit or device and its

benefited property within the district.

3. Maps and plans shall be submitted to and approved or denied, in

writing, by the state department of health. Copy of such notice of

approval or denial shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the town

in which the proposed district or extension is located. No public

hearing shall be called to establish or extend a water quality treatment

district until such maps and plans have been approved by the state

department of health.

4. After such maps and plans shall have been approved by the state

department of health, the town board shall, by resolution designate the

place where and time when a public hearing will be held to consider the

establishment or extension of a water quality treatment district. The

town board shall cause a notice of such hearing to be published and

posted in the manner prescribed in section one hundred ninety-three. The

notice shall comply with the requirements of section one hundred

ninety-three as to content, except that no recitation of the filing of a

petition shall be made. The notice of public hearing shall recite in

general terms the purpose thereof and describe the location or locations

of the proposed district or extension.