Senate Bill 2311

AN ACT TO ENACT THE COMMUNITY DRINKING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE SUSTAINABILITY ACT; TO ESTABLISH AN ACCOUNTABILITY PROCESS TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY DRINKING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE SUSTAINABILITY, PROMOTE THE PROTECTION OF MISSISSIPPI CITIZENS FROM POOR WATER QUALITY AND DEFICIENT DRINKING WATER SERVICE, AND CREATE A TRANSPARENT PROCESS THAT PRODUCES CLEAR STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR COMMUNITY PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS; TO DIRECT THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO CREATE AND ADMINISTER A STATEWIDE FRAMEWORK FOR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR COMMUNITY PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS THAT INCLUDES A LETTER GRADE SCHEDULE BASED ON CERTAIN CRITERIA; TO REQUIRE THE BOARD TO PROMULGATE RULES AND REGULATIONS TO ESTABLISH AND IMPLEMENT THE COMMUNITY PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM LETTER GRADE SCHEDULE; TO REQUIRE THE BOARD TO PUBLISH AN ANNUAL REPORT ON ITS WEBSITE CONTAINING THE ASSESSMENT, SCORES AND LETTER GRADE FOR EACH COMMUNITY PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM, AND TO REQUIRE EACH COMMUNITY PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM TO PROVIDE NOTIFICATION TO ITS CUSTOMERS OF THE BOARD'S PUBLISHED SCORE AND LETTER GRADE WITHIN 30 DAYS FOLLOWING PUBLICATION; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "Community Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Act."

SECTION 2. As used in this act, the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed herein:

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

(b) "Community public water system," means a public water system serving at least fifteen (15) individual service connections used by year-round consumers or regularly servicing at least twenty-five (25) individual consumers year-round.

(d) "Person" means an individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, municipality or federal agency.

SECTION 3. There is hereby established a community public water system accountability process to:

(a) Support community drinking water infrastructure sustainability for the citizens of Mississippi;

(b) Promote the protection of the citizens of Mississippi from poor water quality and deficient service by assuring the drinking water provided by community public water systems remains consistently at levels essential for health, safety, welfare and long-term sustainability; and

(c) Create a transparent accountability process that produces clear standards and expectations for community public water systems so that assessment of their quality, performance and sustainability will be understood.

SECTION 4. The board shall create and administer a statewide framework of accountability for community public water systems. The framework shall include a letter grade schedule based on, at a minimum, the following criteria:

(a) Federal water quality violation history;

(b) State water quality violation history;

(d) Operation and maintenance performance history;

(e) Infrastructure condition and compliance;

(f) Customer satisfaction; and

(g) Levels of secondary contaminants.

SECTION 5. (1) The board shall promulgate rules and regulations to establish and implement the community public water system letter grade schedule described in this section. The rules and regulations shall provide clear and appropriate point values for each standard set forth in Section 4 of this act and other assessment criteria as determined by the board to calculate the community public water system's letter grade. Point values shall be based on objective criteria to ensure equal and fair assessments. Community public water systems shall be assigned a letter grade of "A," "B," "C," "D" or "F." A consolidated score and letter grade shall be calculated on a weighted-average basis for any person owning more than one (1) community public water system in the state.

(2) The board shall publish on its website an annual report summarizing the board's assessment, scores and letter grade for each community public water system. Each community public water system shall provide notification to its customers of the board's published score and letter grade within thirty (30) days following publication by the board in a manner to be established by regulation by the board.

(3) By January 1, 2028, the board shall begin publishing annual letter grades issued pursuant to this section.

SECTION 6. If there is a conflict between the provisions of any other law and this act, this act shall govern.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2026.