If the commission determines that any privately owned water and/or sewer system within its jurisdiction is unable or unwilling to adequately serve its customers or has been actually or effectively abandoned by its owner, or that its management is grossly inefficient, irresponsible or unresponsive to the needs of its customers, the commission or its designated representative may petition the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County or the chancery court of any county wherein the public utility does business for an order attaching the assets of the privately owned water and/or sewer system and placing such water and/or sewer system under the sole control and responsibility of a receiver. If the court determines that the petition is proper in all respects and finds, after a hearing thereon, the allegations contained in the petition are true, it shall order that the water and/or sewer system be placed in receivership. The court, in its discretion and in consideration of the recommendation of the commission or its designated representative, may appoint a receiver who shall be a responsible individual, partnership, corporation or political subdivision knowledgeable in water or sewer service affairs and who shall maintain control and responsibility for the operation and management of the affairs of such water and/or sewer system. The receiver shall operate the water and/or sewer system so as to preserve the assets of the water and/or sewer system and to serve the best interests of its customers. The receiver shall be compensated from the assets of the water and/or sewer system in an amount to be determined by the court.

Control of and responsibility for the water and/or sewer system shall remain in the receiver until the court determines that it is in the best interests of the customers that the water and/or sewer system be returned to the owner, transferred to another owner or assumed by another water and/or sewer system or public service corporation. If the court, after hearing, determines that control of and responsibility for the affairs of the water and/or sewer system should not be returned to the legal owner thereof, the receiver may proceed to liquidate the assets of such water and/or sewer system in the manner provided by law.

Mississippi laws and Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure generally applicable to receivership shall govern receiverships created under this section.

This section is in addition to the provisions of Section 77-3-21.