Bill Text: CT HB06537 | 2013 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Concerning Water Quality And The University Of Connecticut.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-08 - Public Hearing 03/15 [HB06537 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2013-HB06537-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 6537
January Session, 2013		LCO No. 3840
		*03840_______ENV*
Referred to Committee on ENVIRONMENT
Introduced by:
(ENV)

AN ACT CONCERNING WATER QUALITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 25-32a of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2013):

As used in this section, sections 25-32, 25-32b to 25-32m, inclusive, as amended by this act, 25-33 and 25-34, "consumer" means any private dwelling, hotel, motel, boardinghouse, apartment, store, office building, institution, mechanical or manufacturing establishment or other place of business or industry to which water is supplied by a water company; "water company" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, municipality, The University of Connecticut at Storrs, or other entity, or the lessee thereof, who or which owns, maintains, operates, manages, controls or employs any pond, lake, reservoir, well, stream or distributing plant or system that supplies water to two or more consumers or to twenty-five or more persons on a regular basis provided if any individual, partnership, association, corporation, municipality or other entity or lessee owns or controls eighty per cent of the equity value of more than one such system or company, the number of consumers or persons supplied by all such systems so controlled shall be considered as owned by one company for the purposes of this definition.

Sec. 2. Section 22a-354c of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2013):

(a) On or before July 1, 1990, each public or private water company serving one thousand or more persons shall map at level B all areas of contribution and recharge areas for its existing wells located in stratified drift aquifers. On or before July 1, 2014, The University of Connecticut at Storrs shall map at level B all areas of contribution and recharge areas for its existing wells located in stratified drift aquifers. Not later than three years after the adoption by the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection of a model municipal aquifer protection ordinance under section 22a-354l, each public and private water company serving ten thousand or more persons and The University of Connecticut at Storrs shall map at level A all areas of contribution and recharge areas for its existing wells located in stratified drift aquifers. Any public or private water company, including, but not limited to, The University of Connecticut, that creates a new well field serving one thousand or more persons that has not been mapped previously as an existing well shall map areas of contribution and recharge areas for the new well field. Any map of such a new well field shall be submitted not later than one year after the issuance of a diversion permit in accordance with section 22a-368 at level B, and not later than three years after the issuance of a diversion permit in accordance with section 22a-368 at level A. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection may map at level A and at level B all areas of contribution and recharge areas for existing wells located in stratified drift aquifers that are used by any public or private water company serving less than one thousand persons.

(b) Each public or private water company serving ten thousand or more persons and The University of Connecticut at Storrs shall map all areas of contribution and recharge areas for potential wells that are located within stratified drift aquifers identified as future sources of water supply to meet their needs in accordance with the plan submitted pursuant to section 25-33h at level B not more than two years after the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection requests such mapping. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall identify and make recommendations for mapping, or shall map, all remaining significant areas of contribution and recharge areas for potential wells located in stratified drift aquifers not identified by a public or private water company as a potential source of water supply within the region of an approved plan. Mapping of any other area of contribution and recharge areas for potential wells located in stratified drift aquifers by the commissioner shall be completed at a time determined by the commissioner.

Sec. 3. Section 25-37c of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2013):

The Department of Public Health shall adopt, in accordance with chapter 54, regulations establishing criteria and performance standards for the three following classes of water-company-owned land: [.]

[(a)] (1) Class I land includes all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is either: [(1)] (A) Within two hundred and fifty feet of high water of a reservoir or one hundred feet of all watercourses as defined in agency regulations adopted pursuant to this section; [(2)] (B) within the areas along watercourses which are covered by any of the critical components of a stream belt; [(3)] (C) land with slopes fifteen per cent or greater without significant interception by wetlands, swales and natural depressions between the slopes and the watercourses; [(4)] (D) within two hundred feet of groundwater wells; [(5)] (E) an identified direct recharge area or outcrop of aquifer now in use or available for future use, or [(6)] (F) an area with shallow depth to bedrock, twenty inches or less, or poorly drained or very poorly drained soils as defined by the United States Soil Conservation Service that are contiguous to land described in [subdivision (3) or (4) of this subsection] subparagraph (C) or (D) of this subdivision and that extend to the top of the slope above the receiving watercourse.

[(b)] (2) Class II land includes (A) all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is either [(1)] (i) on a public drinking supply watershed which is not included in class I, or [(2)] (ii) completely off a public drinking supply watershed and which is within one hundred and fifty feet of a distribution reservoir or a first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir, and (B) notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, for lands owned by The University of Connecticut, (i) all level A aquifer protection lands that are mapped, approved and regulated pursuant to chapter 446i that are within a public drinking supply watershed that is not class I land, or (ii) all land that is completely outside public drinking supply watersheds and that is within one hundred fifty feet of a distribution reservoir or first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir.

[(c)] (3) Class III land includes (A) all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is unimproved land off public drinking supply watersheds and beyond one hundred and fifty feet from a distribution reservoir or first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir, and (B) notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, for lands owned by The University of Connecticut, (i) unimproved land outside public drinking water supply watersheds and more than one hundred and fifty feet from a distribution reservoir or first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir, and (ii) any land that is neither class I nor class II land.

Sec. 4. Subsection (b) of section 25-32 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2013):

(b) No water company shall sell, lease, assign or otherwise dispose of or change the use of any watershed lands, except as provided in section 25-43c, without a written permit from the Commissioner of Public Health. The commissioner shall not grant: (1) A permit for the sale of class I land, except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, (2) a permit for the lease of class I land except as provided in subsection (p) of this section, or (3) a permit for a change in use of class I land unless the applicant demonstrates that such change will not have a significant adverse impact upon the present and future purity and adequacy of the public drinking water supply and is consistent with any water supply plan filed and approved pursuant to section 25-32d. The commissioner may reclassify class I land only upon determination that such land no longer meets the criteria established by [subsection (a)] subdivision (1) of section 25-37c, as amended by this act, because of abandonment of a water supply source or a physical change in the watershed boundary. Not more than fifteen days before filing an application for a permit under this section, the applicant shall provide notice of such intent, by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the chief executive officer and the chief elected official of each municipality in which the land is situated.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2013	25-32a
Sec. 2	October 1, 2013	22a-354c
Sec. 3	October 1, 2013	25-37c
Sec. 4	October 1, 2013	25-32(b)

Statement of Purpose:

To require The University of Connecticut at Storrs to comply with certain water supply plans, consumer information and mapping requirements that are currently applicable to water companies and to classify certain lands of The University of Connecticut at Storrs for purposes of public health regulations.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]