New York Laws
Article 12 - District and Special Improvements
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.