§ 16-20 — Inadequate service or unreasonable rates; petition to authority. Small community water system rates and service.

Connecticut § 16-20

• Jurisdiction: Connecticut
• Title 16: Public Service Companies
• Ch. 277: Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. Office of Consumer Counsel. Miscellaneous Provisions

Text

(a) As used in this section, “private water company” means a corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership, other entity or person, or lessee thereof, owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well or distributing plant or system employed for the purpose of supplying water to not less than two service connections or twenty-five persons, but does not include a municipal waterworks system established under chapter 102, a district, metropolitan district, municipal district or special services district established under chapter 105, chapter 105a or any other general statute or any public or special act which is authorized to supply water, or any other waterworks system owned, leased, maintained, operated, managed, or controlled by any unit of local government under any general statute or any public or special act. (b) If any public service company or private water company unreasonably fails or refuses to furnish adequate service at reasonable rates to any person within the territorial limits within which the company has, by its charter, authority to furnish the service or, in the case of a nonfranchised, nonchartered private water company, the general territorial limits within which it operates, and if no other specific remedy is provided in this title or in regulations adopted thereunder, the person may bring a written petition to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority alleging the failure or refusal. The authority shall investigate and, not more than sixty days after receipt of a petition, (1) if appropriate, issue an order prescribing the service to be furnished by the company, the conditions under which and maximum rates or charges at which the service shall be furnished, or (2) order that a hearing be held on the matter or that the matter be set for alternative dispute resolution. If at any time during such sixty-day period, any party in interest requests a hearing, the authority shall, after notice to all parties and not more than ninety days after receiving the request, hold a hearing and, if appropriate, issue an order prescribing the service to be furnished by the company and the conditions under which and maximum rates or charges at which the service shall be furnished. (c) The authority, on its own initiative, or upon request by the Commissioner of Public Health, may initiate an investigation to determine whether the rates of a small community water system are inadequate for such water system to maintain economic viability and provide adequate service to its customers. As used in this subsection, “small community water system” means a water system that is not required to submit a water supply plan under section 25-32d . The authority shall, not more than one hundred fifty days after the commencement of such investigation, if appropriate, issue an order prescribing the appropriate service to be furnished by the water system and the appropriate rates or charges that are necessary to furnish such service. Prior to the issuance of any such order raising rates or charges of such water system's customers, the authority, in consultation with the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Attorney General, shall consider the financial impact that any such rate increase may have on such water system's ratepayers. If such rate increase is one hundred per cent or more, such increase shall be phased in over the course of a two-year period. If at any time during such investigation any party in interest requests a hearing, the authority shall, after notice to all parties and not more than thirty days after receiving the request, hold a hearing and, if appropriate, issue an order prescribing the service to be furnished by the small community water system and the appropriate rates or charges at which the service shall be furnished. If such hearing is held, the authority shall have commensurate additional time to issue such order.

Legislative History

(1949 Rev., S. 5410; P.A. 75-486, S. 1, 69; P.A. 77-614, S. 162, 610; P.A. 80-482, S. 60, 348; P.A. 81-297, S. 2; 81-358, S. 1; P.A. 97-8; P.A. 98-29, S. 1, 3; P.A. 11-80, S. 1; P.A. 15-89, S. 1.) History: P.A. 75-486 replaced public utilities commission with public utilities control authority; P.A. 77-614 replaced public utilities control authority with division of public utility control within the department of business regulation, effective January 1, 1979; P.A. 80-482 made division an independent department and deleted reference to abolished department of business regulation; P.A. 81-297 required department to hold hearing within 150 days after receiving petition; P.A. 81-358 made petition procedure available to persons residing within general territorial limits of a nonfranchised, nonchartered water company; P.A. 97-8 added as a condition to bringing a petition that no other specific remedy be available in title 16 or in regulations, deleted provision re automatic hearing procedures and added Subdiv. (1) re issuing orders, Subdiv. (2) re ordering hearings or alternate dispute resolution, and provisions holding hearings upon request; P.A. 98-29 added new Subsec. (a) defining “private water company”, designated existing provisions as Subsec. (b) and inserted references to private water companies, effective May 19, 1998; pursuant to P.A. 11-80, “Department of Public Utility Control” and “department” were changed editorially by the Revisors to “Public Utilities Regulatory Authority” and “authority”, respectively, in Subsec. (b), effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 15-89 added Subsec. (c) re small community water system rates and service, effective June 22, 2015. Right to require and considerations proper as to extension of gas main. 91 C. 134. Application of section to telephone service. 99 C. 284. Public utility is not under duty to extend service at regular rates except where reasonable. 114 C. 628. Section is not exclusive remedy; equity may enjoin shutting off of service where there is honest dispute over bill. 123 C. 180. Entitles a person living within a franchised area of utility to an extension of service only when extension of service would be reasonable under the circumstances. 142 C. 359. A public utility company need not provide service without a reasonable payment therefor, and reasonableness of amounts charged ought to be questioned in an administrative proceeding before commission and not in a collateral proceeding. 144 C. 195. Cited. 145 C. 243. Jurisdiction of commission is not exclusive; in action by water company on promissory note where defendants relied on doctrine of unilateral mistake and inequitable conduct in execution of contract, court having obtained jurisdiction should retain it as to whole controversy. 149 C. 442. Cited. 159 C. 327; 169 C. 344.