S-3721.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 6141

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      54th Legislature     1996 Regular Session

By Senators Swecker, Fraser and Rasmussen

Read first time 01/08/96.  Referred to Committee on Energy, Telecommunications & Utilities.

Requiring additional public notice and participation in various activities of investor-owned water companies.

    AN ACT Relating to investor-owned water companies; and amending RCW 80.28.060.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 80.28.060 and 1989 c 152 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Unless the commission otherwise orders, no change shall be made in any rate or charge or in any form of contract or agreement or in any rule or regulation relating to any rate, charge, or service, or in any general privilege or facility which shall have been filed and published by a gas company, electrical company, or water company in compliance with the requirements of RCW 80.28.050 except after thirty days' notice to the commission and publication for thirty days, which notice shall plainly state the changes proposed to be made in the schedule then in force and the time when the change will go into effect and all proposed changes shall be shown by printing, filing, and publishing new schedules, or shall be plainly indicated upon the schedules in force at the time and kept open to public inspection.  Proposed changes may be suspended by the commission within thirty days or before the stated effective date of the proposed change, whichever is later.  The commission, for good cause shown, may allow changes without requiring the thirty days' notice by duly filing, in such manner as it may direct, an order specifying the changes so to be made and the time when it shall take effect.  All such changes shall be immediately indicated upon its schedules by the company affected.  When any change is made in any rate or charge, form of contract or agreement, or any rule or regulation relating to any rate or charge or service, or in any general privilege or facility, the effect of which is to increase any rate or charge((,)) then in existence, attention shall be directed on the copy filed with the commission to such increase by some character immediately preceding or following the item in such schedule, such character to be in form as designated by the commission.

(2) In the case of an investor-owned water company, any change subject to the thirty-day notice and publication period specified in subsection (1) of this section is subject to an additional fourteen-day public comment period or periods, which shall commence:  (a) At the end of the thirty-day period; and (b) upon the filing of any report or recommendation to the commission by commission staff concerning the change.  After consideration of any comments received, the commission may allow or disallow the change.

Capital expenditures of more than fifteen thousand dollars may be made by an investor-owned water company only after a call for bids.  Projects of up to one hundred thousand dollars may be awarded through a small works roster as specified in RCW 39.04.155.

For the purposes of this subsection, "investor-owned water company" means a corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership, or person, or lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any public water system for hire.