58:12A-42 Service line inventory.
3. a. Each public community water system in the State shall develop a service line inventory, in accordance with the requirements of this section, in order to determine the existence or absence of a lead service line at each service connection in its service area. The service line inventory shall include information about service line locations and the composition of service lines at each location. The department may prescribe data management means and methods to provide for the receipt of uniform submissions of the service line inventory by public community water systems.
b. No later than 60 days after the effective date of this act, a public community water system shall compile and submit, to the department, an initial count showing the number of lead service lines and the number of service lines of unknown composition that are known to be present in the system's service area, as well as the number of lead service lines that are to be replaced annually, based on the replacement rate established pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection b. of section 5 of this act.
c. No later than six months after the effective date of this act, a public community water system shall submit to the department an initial service line inventory. The inventory shall include:
(1) the locations of all identified lead service lines;
(2) an indication as to whether each identified lead service line is completely composed of lead or otherwise meets the definition of a lead service line;
(3) the location of each service line that is suspected to be lead;
(4) for each identified and suspected lead service line, an indication as to whether the line is owned by the public community water system, the property owner, or both;
(5) the locations and compositions of all non-lead service lines; and
(6) a separate list identifying all service lines of unknown composition.
d. The public community water system shall use historical building records and other available information, including data from the American Water Works Association or other industry research groups, to determine the likelihood of the presence of lead service lines in all portions of its service area, as provided by this section.
e. Following the submission of the initial service line inventory pursuant to subsection c. of this section, each public community water system in the State shall continue the inventory process and utilize every reasonable method available to locate all lead service lines within its service area. This process shall include, but shall not be limited to:
(1) visual inspection during planned maintenance, meter replacement, and main replacement projects; and
(2) the solicitation and receipt of comments, complaints, and other input from customers and non-paying consumers in the service area.
f. (1) No later than one year after the effective date of this act, a public community water system shall submit, to the department, an updated inventory of service lines in its service area. The updated inventory shall contain the information required by subsection c. of this section, and shall additionally include:
(a) for each service line suspected of containing lead, supporting information detailing the reasons why each such service line is believed to contain lead; and
(b) for each service line identified as being of unknown composition, a description detailing the steps undertaken to determine whether the line contains lead.
(2) The public community water system shall keep the department informed of its progress pursuant to this subsection, through the annual reports submitted pursuant to the provisions of section 7 of this act. If a public community water system exhausts all other methods of identifying a service line, including the use of new technologies that become available, the department may require excavation, as necessary, to identify the service line.
g. Beginning two years after the effective date of this act, and until such time as all lead service lines have been replaced in accordance with this act, a public community water system shall annually submit to the department:
(1) an updated service line inventory that meets the requirements of subsection f. of this section; and
(2) a statement certifying that the public community water system is in compliance with the provisions of this act.
h. A public community water system shall provide its most recent service line inventory, upon request and at no cost, to appropriate State officials or to the local government officials of a municipality served by the public community water system. A public community water system shall make its most recent service line inventory available on its Internet website. For public community water systems serving fewer than 3,300 customers, whenever an Internet website is not available, the public community water system shall make its most recent service line inventory available in another publicly accessible location.
L.2021, c.183, s.3.