2023 District of Columbia Code › Title 34 - Public Utilities › Chapter 24 - Water Supply, Assessments, and Rates › Subchapter I - General Provisions › § 34–2401.25. Water and water service supplied for the use of the government of the United States

§ 34–2401.25. Water and water service supplied for the use of the government of the United States.
(a) All water and water services furnished from the District water supply system through any connection thereto for direct use by the government of the United States or any department, independent establishment, or agency thereof, situated in the District, except water and water services furnished to the United States for the maintenance, operation, and extension of the water system, shall be paid for at the rates for the furnishing and readiness to furnish water applicable to other water consumers in the District. All water and water services furnished from the District water supply system through any connection thereto for direct use by the government of the United States or any department, independent establishment, or agency thereof, situated outside the District in the States of Maryland or Virginia, except water and water services furnished to the United States for the maintenance, operation, and extension of the water system, shall be paid for at rates comparable to those which may be in effect and charged to state, municipal, or county agencies or other political authorities or jurisdictions within the respective states wherein said federal facilities may be situated for similar water service from the District water supply system; provided, that conditions as to water pressure, quantity, rates of demand, and points of connection available or permissible at any time for service outside the District, if any, shall be fixed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia so as to fully protect the prior interests of water consumers within the District; provided further, that as a condition of service, at each point of federal connection to the water system of the District for service outside the District there shall be installed and maintained at the expense of the department, independent establishment, or agency of the United States which is to use water therefrom a suitable meter or meters and incidental vaults, valves, piping and recording devices, and such other equipment as the Mayor in his discretion deems necessary to control and record the use of water through each such connection. As an additional condition of service, the department, agency, or establishment which is responsible for the maintenance of any such meter shall provide the Mayor (acting through the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority) with such access to the meter as the Mayor may require to measure the actual usage of the department, agency, or establishment (including any entity under the jurisdiction of the department, agency, or establishment) for purposes of making the adjustments to annual estimates required under § 34-2401.25a(1). Payment shall be made as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(b)(1) Beginning in the second quarter of fiscal year 1990, the government of the District of Columbia shall receive payment for water services from funds appropriated or otherwise available to the Federal departments, independent establishments, or agencies. In accordance with the provisions of paragraphs (2) and (3) of this subsection, one-fourth (25 percent) of the annual estimate prepared by the District government shall be paid, not later than the second day of each fiscal quarter, to the District government by the Secretary of the Treasury from funds deposited by said departments, establishments, or agencies in a United States Treasury account entitled “Federal Payment for Water and Sewer Services”. In the absence of sufficient funds in said account, payment shall be made by the Secretary of the Treasury from funds available to the respective user agencies. Payments shall be made to the District government by the Secretary of the Treasury without further justification, and shall be equal to one-fourth (25 percent) of the annual estimate prepared by the District government pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(2) By April 15 of each calendar year the District shall provide the Office of Management and Budget, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the head of each of the respective Federal departments, independent establishments, and agencies, for inclusion in the President’s budget of the respective Federal departments, independent establishments, or agencies, an estimate of the cost of service for the fiscal year commencing October 1st of the following calendar year. The estimate shall provide the total estimated annual cost of such service and an itemized estimate of such costs by Federal department, independent establishment, or agency. The District’s estimates on a yearly basis shall reflect such adjustments as are necessary to
(A) account for actual usage variances from the estimated amounts for the fiscal year ending on September 30th of the calendar year preceding April 15th, and
(B) reflect changes in rates charged for water and sewer services resulting from public laws or rate covenants pursuant to water and sewer revenue bond sales.
(3) Each Federal department, independent establishment, or agency receiving water services in buildings, establishments, or other places shall pay from funds specifically appropriated or otherwise available to it, quarterly and on the first day of each such fiscal quarter, to an account in the United States Treasury entitled “Federal Payment for Water and Sewer Services” an amount equal to one-fourth (25 percent) of the annual estimate for said services as provided for in paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(4) The amount or time period for late payment of water charges involving a building, establishment, or other place owned by the Government of the United States imposed by the District of Columbia shall not be different from those imposed by the District of Columbia on its most favored customer.
(5) Repealed.
(c) Nothing in this section may be construed to require the District of Columbia to seek payment for water services directly from any Federal entity which is under the jurisdiction of a department, independent establishment, or agency which is required to make a payment for such services under this section, or to allocate any amounts charged for such services among the entities which are under the jurisdiction of any such department, independent establishment, or agency. Each Federal department, independent establishment, and agency receiving water from the District of Columbia shall be responsible for allocating billings for such services among entities under the jurisdiction of the department, establishment, or agency, and shall be responsible for collecting amounts from such entities for any payments made to the District of Columbia under this section.
(d) In the case of water services provided to a department, independent establishment, or agency in Virginia through the Federally owned water main system, if the total of the metered amounts billed for all individual users of the system (as measured by the meters for each individual user) is less than the total amount as measured by the meters at the delivery points into the system at the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the District government shall collect, and the Secretary of Defense shall pay, the difference to the District government in accordance with the requirements for collecting and making payments under this section.
(May 18, 1954, 68 Stat. 102, ch. 218, title I, § 106; Sept. 30, 1966, 80 Stat. 857, Pub. L. 89-610, title V, § 503; Oct. 6, 1977, 91 Stat. 1093, Pub. L. 95-122, § 1(1); Nov. 21, 1989, 103 Stat. 1280, Pub. L. 101-168, § 133(b); Dec. 21, 2000, 114 Stat. 2763, Pub. L. 106-554, § 1(a)(4), H.R. 5666, Div. A., Ch. 4, § 401(a); Dec. 21, 2001, 115 Stat. 942, 943, 944, Pub. L. 107-96, par. 52(a)(2), (b)(1), (c)(2); Oct. 18, 2004, 118 Stat. 1348, Pub. L. 108-335, § 337(a).)
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 43-1552.
1973 Ed., § 43-1541.
Section References
This section is referenced in § 34-2401.25a and § 47-131.
Effect of Amendments
Pub. L. 107-96, in subsec. (a), inserted the second to the last sentence relating to access to meters; in subsec. (b), par. (2), inserted “the Secretary of the Treasury, and the head of each of the respective Federal departments, independent establishments, and agencies,”; added subsec. (c) relating to payment for sanitary sewer services; and added subsec. (d) relating to water services.
Pub. L. 108-335, in subsec. (b), repealed par. (5) which had read as follows: “(5) Not later than the 15th day of the month following each quarter (beginning with the first quarter of fiscal year 2001), the inspector general of each Federal department, establishment, or agency receiving water services from the District of Columbia shall submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate analyzing the promptness of payment with respect to the services furnished to such department, establishment, or agency.”
Effective Dates
Pub. L. 107-96, 115 Stat. 944, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2002, provided in part:
“This section and the amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to fiscal year 2002 and each succeeding fiscal year.”
Section 337(c) of Pub. L. 108-335 provided: “(c) The amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to quarters occurring during fiscal year 2005 and each succeeding fiscal year.”
Editor's Notes
Apportionment of appropriations: Section 133 of Pub. L. 101-518, 104 Stat. 2237, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1991, amended section 133(e) of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1990, as amended, by striking “December 31, 1990” and inserting “December 31, 1991.”
Section 129 of Pub. L. 102-111, 105 Stat. 570, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1992, amended section 133(e) of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1990, as amended, by striking “December 31, 1991” and inserting “December 31, 1992.”
Section 130 of Pub. L. 102-382, 106 Stat. 1434, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1993, amended section 133(e) of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1990, as amended, by striking “December 31, 1992” and inserting “December 31, 1993.”
Public Law 102-382, 106 Stat. 1429, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1993, provided for the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund, $251,630,000, of which $39,602,000 shall be apportioned and payable to the debt service fund for repayment of loans and interest incurred for capital improvement projects.
Section 134 of § 1(c) of Pub. L. 100-202, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1988, provided that none of the funds available to the District of Columbia government shall be used for any purpose involved in billing individual agencies or establishments for water and water services and sanitary sewer services traditionally funded under the account “Federal Payment for Water and Sewer Services” unless and until existing statutes (sections 106 and 212 of the District of Columbia Public Works Act of 1954, as amended, Public Law 364, approved May 18, 1954) are amended to specifically provide for such billing.
Section 128 of Pub. L. 103-127, 107 Stat. 1347, the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1994, amended section 133(e) of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1990, as amended, by substituting “December 31, 1994” for “December 31,
Change in Government
This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.