Sec.16-262o-4. Application required; filing requirements

(a) Any acquiring water company which incurs acquisition costs, or which incurs expenditures for needed improvements, may apply to the Department for approval of a rate surcharge to customers based on the foregoing policy. The requirements set out in this section shall apply to proceedings and applications of acquiring water companies for an increase in rates based upon such a surcharge.

(b) The application shall include evidence of compliance with orders concerning needed improvements issued by the Department in the proceeding in which acquisition of the acquired water company is ordered by the Department of Public Utility Control, in consultation with the Department of Health Services; evidence that acquisition of the acquired water company precipitated the construction of any needed improvements; and evidence, preferably in the form of an engineering analysis, that the acquiring water company has selected the least costly solutions and that efficient and adequate engineering standards have been applied to the design specifications, except that an engineering analysis shall not be required to the extent that engineering work related to needed improvements is approved by the Department in the proceeding in which acquisition of the acquired water company is ordered.

(c) No application for the actual implementation of any rate surcharge with respect to expenditures for needed improvements shall be accepted, and no such surcharge shall be permitted to be collected, until the primary needed improvements project has been let, started and is progressing to the point of onsite contractor and crew set-up, and full construction has begun on major elements of the subject facility.

(d) An application for a surcharge with respect to acquisition costs may be filed as of the date that the acquisition has taken place, as determined by the Department in the proceeding in which the acquisition was ordered.

(Effective March 22, 1990)