2023 Vermont Statutes › Title 24 - Municipal and County Government › Chapter 91 - Consolidated Water Districts › § 3341. General provisions—Policy and definitions

§ 3341. General provisions—Policy and definitions
(a) It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State to authorize two or more towns or other municipal corporations to join together to establish a consolidated water district for the purpose of developing or acquiring a supply of water and a water distribution system for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of the district or the member systems within the district with pure water for domestic, sanitary, agricultural, commercial, and industrial purposes, and for supplying the member towns with water for all lawful municipal purposes, including development, construction, and operation of water sources to supply existing municipal water systems.
(b) As used in this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings, unless the context shall indicate another or different meaning or intent:
(1) “Town” means any municipality within the meaning of 1 V.S.A. § 126.
(2) “Water system” means and includes all plants, systems, facilities or properties used or useful or having the present capacity for future use in connection with the supply or distribution of water, and any integral part thereof, including water supply systems, water distribution systems, reservoirs, wells, intakes, mains, laterals, aqueducts, pumping stations, standpipes, filtration plants, purification plants, hydrants, meters, valves, and all necessary appurtenances and equipment and all properties, rights, easements, and franchises relating thereto and deemed necessary or convenient by the water commission for the operation thereof.
(3) “Improvements” means such repairs, replacements, additions, extensions, and betterments of and to a water system as are deemed necessary by the water commissioners to place or to maintain such system in proper condition for its safe, efficient, and economic operation or to meet requirements for service in areas that may be served by the district and for which no existing service is being rendered.
(4) “Cost” as applied to a water system shall include the purchase price of any such system, the cost of construction, the cost of all labor, materials, machinery, and equipment, the cost of improvements, the cost of all lands, property, rights, easements, and franchises acquired, financing charges, interest prior to and during construction and, if deemed advisable by the water commissioners for one year after completion of construction, cost of plans and specifications, surveys, and estimates of cost and of revenues, cost of engineering and legal services, and all other expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of such construction.
(5) “Wholesale consolidated water district” means a water district established for the purpose of developing sources of water, together with a system of delivering or treating it, or both, to existing municipal or private water companies. (1964, No. 20 (Sp. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 10, 1964; amended 1966, No. 10 (Sp. Sess.), eff. Feb. 22, 1966; 1967, No. 209, § 1, eff. April 17, 1967.)