MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Public Health and Welfare

By: Representative Guice

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 21-27-203, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE DEFINITION OF "COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEM" TO INCLUDE ANY WATER SYSTEM SERVING WATER TO FORTY OR MORE INDIVIDUAL SERVICE CONNECTIONS OR SERVING SIXTY OR MORE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMERS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 21-27-203, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

21-27-203. For purposes of Sections 21-27-201 through 21-27-221, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed herein, unless the context shall otherwise require:

(a) "Association" means the Mississippi Water and Pollution Control Operator's Association, Inc.

(b) "Board" means the Mississippi State Board of Health.

(c) "Commission" means the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality.

(d) "Community water system" means a public water system serving piped water for human consumption to forty (40) or more individual service connections used by year-round consumers or regularly serving sixty (60) or more individual consumers year-round, including, but not limited to, any collection, pretreatment, treatment, storage and/or distribution facilities or equipment used primarily as part of, or in connection with, that system, regardless of whether or not the components are under the ownership or control of the operator of the system.

(e) "Nontransient, noncommunity water system" means a public water system that is not a community water system and that regularly serves at least twenty-five (25) of the same persons over six (6) months per year.

(f) "Operator" means the person who directly supervises and is personally responsible for the daily operation and maintenance of a wastewater facility, community water system, nontransient, noncommunity water system or commercial nonhazardous solid waste management landfill.

(g) "Person" means the state or any agency or institution of the state, any municipality, political subdivision, public or private corporation, individual, partnership, association or other entity, including any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, political subdivision, or public or private corporation, or the United States or any officer or employee of the United States.

(h) "Pollution" means contamination or other alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of any waters of the state, including change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity or odor of the waters, or the discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive or other substance or heat into any waters of the state.

(i) "Wastewater facilities" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, force mains, treatment plants, lagoons or any other structure, device, appurtenance or facility, whether operated individually or in any combination, used for collecting, treating and/or disposing of municipal or domestic wastewater, by either surface or underground methods, which is required to have a permit under Section 49-17-29.

(j) "Waters of the state" means all waters within the jurisdiction of this state, including all streams, lakes, ponds, impounding reservoirs, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, situated wholly or partly within or bordering upon the state, and such coastal waters as are within the jurisdiction of the state, except lakes, ponds or other surface waters which are wholly landlocked and privately owned.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1999.