(1) Every water service supplier providing water in this state shall provide a metered water delivery and billing service to its customers according to the following schedule:
For any new construction serviced by such water service supplier, including but notlimited to construction for residential, commercial, or industrial use, meters shall be installed at the time of such construction.
For any existing construction with unmetered taps, meters shall be installed on fiftypercent of such taps on or before January 1, 2000. For any taps remaining unmetered as of January 1, 2000, meters shall be installed on fifty percent of such taps on or before January 1, 2005, and on all remaining unmetered taps on or before January 1, 2009.
Billing of such water services based on the metered service shall begin no later thanninety days from the date of the installation of the meter.
Any increase in the rates charged for such water service attributed to such installationand billing service requirements shall be based upon the actual costs of such installation and billing service. Such increase may recover the total cost of providing such service to the customers of the water service provider.
Nothing in this section shall preclude a water service supplier from providing suchmetered water delivery and billing service prior to the dates specified in subsections (1) and (2) of this section or from seeking a corresponding rate increase necessitated by the provision of such service prior to those dates.
Within an industrial customer operation, multiple water uses shall not be consideredseparate service connections. Deliveries to any customer other than a detached single family residential customer who may be subject to this article may be metered by the use of a single meter for the entire customer or operation.
A mobile home park, as defined in section 38-12-201.5 (6), that makes water serviceavailable to tenants but does not bill the tenants for water as a separate item is exempt from this article 97.
Source: L. 90: Entire article added, p. 1630, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2020: (6) amended, (HB 20-1196), ch. 195, p. 928, § 21, effective June 30.
Cross references: For additional exemptions, see § 37-97-102.5.