Subject to the limitations set forth in this section, the authority is fully empowered to acquire, construct, operate, maintain, improve, and extend facilities that enable it to obtain, distribute, and sell water, and to collect, treat, recycle, and dispose of water and wastewater, to persons, firms, corporations, municipal corporations, political divisions, and the United States Government, or any agencies thereof, at any point within its service area. To that end, the authority shall have the powers to:

(1) have perpetual succession;

(2) sue and be sued;

(3) adopt, use, and alter a corporate seal;

(4) define a quorum for its meetings;

(5) establish a principal office;

(6) make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs;

(7) build, construct, maintain, and operate wells, canals, aqueducts, ditches, tunnels, culverts, flumes, conduits, mains, pipes, dykes, dams, water reservoirs, treatment facilities, and appurtenant facilities;

(8) impound water in lakes or reservoirs;

(9) build, construct, maintain, and operate water distribution systems;

(10) construct, operate, maintain, improve, and enlarge facilities which provide for the collection, impoundment, retention, transmission, treatment, recycling, and disposal of water and wastewater;

(11) acquire and operate any type of machinery, appliances, or appurtenances, necessary or useful to discharge the functions committed to the authority by this chapter;

(12) accept gifts or grants of services, properties, or monies from the United States, or any of its agencies, under such conditions as the United States or such agency shall prescribe;

(13) subject to the provisions of this section, sell water and wastewater services for agricultural, industrial, commercial, residential, or domestic use;

(14) prescribe rates and regulations under which water and wastewater services shall be sold or provided;

(15) subject to the provisions of this section, enter into contracts for the sale of water and to enter into contracts to furnish services for any or all of the collection, treatment, recycling, and disposal of water or wastewater, upon such terms as the parties thereto shall approve, with persons, private corporations, municipal corporations, public bodies, public agencies, and with the United States Government, or any agencies thereof;

(16) prescribe regulations fixing the conditions under which services shall be provided;

(17) prescribe such regulations as the authority considers necessary to protect from pollution all water in its canals, aqueducts, reservoirs, or distribution systems;

(18) prescribe such regulations as the authority considers necessary to ensure the efficient use of water supply, collection, treatment, and disposal resources within its service area;

(19) make contracts of all sorts and to execute all instruments necessary or convenient for the carrying on of the business of the authority including, but not limited to, source water protection agreements with upstream landowners;

(20) lease or sell and convey lands or interests therein;

(21) make use of county and state highway rights of way in which to lay pipes and lines, in such manner and under such reasonable conditions as the appropriate officials in charge of such rights of way shall approve;

(22) alter and change county and state highways wherever necessary in order that the authority may discharge the functions committed to it, in such manner and under such reasonable conditions as the appropriate officials in charge of such highways shall approve;

(23) acquire, by purchase, gift, or through the exercise of eminent domain, all land, interests therein, easements, or rights of way, which the authority shall consider necessary to enable it to fully and adequately discharge all functions committed to it. The power herein granted shall be considered to include the power to acquire protective areas of land adjacent to any of its facilities and water supplies;

(24) exercise the power of eminent domain for any corporate function. The power of eminent domain may be exercised through any procedure prescribed by general law as it may be amended or expanded from time to time;

(25) appoint officers, agents, employees, and servants, to prescribe the duties of such, to fix their compensation, and to determine if and to what extent they shall be bonded for the faithful performance of their duties;

(26) make contracts for construction, engineering, legal, and other services, with or without competitive bidding;

(27) borrow money and to make and issue negotiable bonds, notes, and other evidences of indebtedness, payable from all or any part of the revenues derived from the operation of its system and facilities. The sums borrowed may be those needed to pay all costs incident to the construction and establishment of the facilities, and any extension, addition, and improvement thereto, including engineering costs, construction costs, the sum needed to capitalize and pay interest for a period of three years from the date of delivery of the bonds, such sum as is needed to supply working capital to place the facilities in operation, and all other expenses of any sort that the authority may incur in establishing, extending, and enlarging its system or the facilities. Neither the faith and credit of the State of South Carolina, nor of any county, municipality, or political subdivision of the State shall be pledged for the payment of the principal and interest of the obligations, and there shall be on the face of each obligation a statement, plainly worded, to that effect. Neither the members of the authority nor any person signing the obligations shall be personally liable thereon. To the end that a convenient procedure for borrowing money may be prescribed, the authority shall be fully empowered to avail itself of all power granted by general law for the issuance or refinancing of revenue bonds by political subdivisions of the State including future amendments and modifications thereto. In exercising the power conferred upon the authority by such general law, the authority may make all pledges and covenants authorized by any provision thereof, and may confer upon the holders of its securities all rights and liens authorized by such general law. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the authority is specifically authorized to:

(a) covenant and agree that upon it being adjudged in default as to the payment of any installment of principal or interest upon any obligation issued by it or in default as to the performance of any covenant or undertaking made by it, that in such event, the principal of all obligations of such issue may be declared forthwith due and payable, notwithstanding that any of them may not have then matured;

(b) confer upon a corporate trustee the power to make disposition of the proceeds from all borrowings and of all revenues derived from the operation of the facilities, in accordance with and in the order of priority prescribed by the resolutions adopted by the authority as an incident to the issuance of any notes, bonds, or other types of securities;

(c) dispose of its obligations at public or private sale, and upon such terms and conditions as it shall approve;

(d) make such provisions for the redemption of any obligations issued by it prior to their stated maturity, with or without premium, and on such terms and conditions as the authority shall approve;

(e) covenant and agree that any reserve fund established to further secure the payment of the principal and interest of any obligations shall be in a fixed amount;

(f) limit or prohibit free service to any person, firm, corporation, municipal corporation, or any subdivision or division of the State;

(g) prescribe the procedure, if any, by which the terms of the contract with the holders of its obligations may be amended, the number of obligations whose holders must consent thereto, and the manner in which such consent shall be given;

(h) prescribe the events of default and the terms and conditions upon which all or any obligations shall become or may be declared due before maturity, and the terms and conditions upon which such declaration and its consequences may be waived; notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, revenue bonds payable from the revenues of the system or systems of the authority shall be payable from and secured by a pledge of the net revenues of such system or systems remaining after provisions shall have been made for the operation and maintenance thereof;

(i) provide that all bonds of any issue mature at a fixed time in lieu of serial maturities;

(28) do all other acts and things necessary or convenient to carry out any function or power committed or granted to the authority;

(29) withdraw from the Salkehatchie River not more than twenty-five million gallons of water per day;

(30) withdraw from the Savannah River not more than one hundred million gallons of water per day;

(31) exercise the powers conferred on special purpose districts by the provisions of Article 7, Chapter 11, Title 6 related to front-foot assessments, and to provide that if assessments are imposed to defray the cost of a particular water or sewer line, any parcel that is initially or subsequently connected to the water or sewer line, whether or not the parcel actually abuts that particular line, is subject to the assessment at the time of the initial assessment or at the time the parcel becomes connected, and further provided that where any lines are extended in segments over time, the authority may treat all segments of the line or lines as a single project and may recalculate the assessments on properties subject to earlier front-foot assessments at the time of a subsequent extension of the line or lines, provided that:

(a) the new assessment is less than or equal to the amount of the earlier assessment; and

(b) the term of the new assessment must not be extended beyond the term of the original assessment.

HISTORY: 2009 Act No. 55, Section 1, eff June 2, 2009.