For purposes of this chapter:
(1) "Joint Authority Water and Sewer System" or "joint system" means a government entity organized under this chapter to undertake or acquire a water or sewer project.
(2) "State" means the State of South Carolina.
(3) "Project" means a project undertaken by a joint authority water and sewer system to:
(a) impound, produce, treat, transmit, distribute, sell, and service water to a member, or to an authority that is not a member but who is engaged in providing water or sewer service, or to any other person or entity if water service is not otherwise available from any other source when approved by the governing body of each member; and
(b) collect, transport, process, treat, dispose, and control municipal, domestic, industrial, or communal waste, flood water, or storm water, whether in fluid, solid, or composite state, including specifically the control, abatement, or reduction of pollution for a member, or for an authority that is not a member and is engaged in waste and wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal, or to any other person or entity if sewer service is not otherwise available from any other source when approved by the governing body of each member.
(4) "Cost" or "cost of a project" means, but is not limited to, the cost of acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement, enlargement, or extension of any project, including the cost of studies, plans, specifications, surveys, and estimates of costs and revenues relating to the project; the cost of land, land rights, rights-of-way and easements, water rights, fees, permits, approvals, licenses, certificates, franchises, and the preparation of applications for and security for them; administrative, legal, professional, engineering, and inspection expenses; financing fees, expenses, and costs; working capital; insurance; interest on the bonds during the period of construction and for a reasonable period after construction as may be determined by the commission of the joint system; establishment of reserves; and all other expenditures of the joint system incidental, necessary, or convenient to the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement, enlargement, or extension of any project and the placing of the project in operation.
(5) "Governing body" means with respect to an authority; the board, commission, council, or other entity charged by law with governing the authority.
(6) "Authority" includes:
(a) a county or municipality incorporated under the laws of this State;
(b) a consolidated political subdivision of this State;
(c) a commission of public works; and
(d) an agency or public body created under the laws of this State and authorized by legislation to be engaged in the sale and service of water for industrial and domestic purposes, or the collection for treatment of wastewater.
(7) "Revenue bonds" and "bonds" mean bonds, notes, certificates, or other obligations of a joint system issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and include a refinancing or refunding of bonds, notes, certificates, or other obligations, but which must be paid solely from the revenue or another source of funds available to a joint system.
(8) "Member of a joint system" means an authority that has taken the actions necessary to form or join the joint system.
(9) "Construction note" or "note" means a note of a joint system issued to provide funding for the creation of a financing pool and the costs associated with it.
(10) "Financing agreement" means an agreement entered into by a joint system organized to create a financing pool and a member of it in connection with the lending of the proceeds of construction notes or portion thereof by the joint system to the member so as to provide for the repayment of amounts loaned and interest on it by the member to the joint system.
(11) "Financing pool" means a fund of money, obtained through the issuance of a construction note of a joint authority water and sewer system, which may be loaned to the members of it by way of interim financing. A joint system may not lend more than five percent of the principal amount of a financing pool to a not-for-profit corporation established pursuant to Chapter 35 of Title 33.
(12) "Government" means the United States of America, acting through the United States Department of Agriculture, or its successor, and the agencies and divisions of it.
(13) "Interim financing" means bond anticipation notes issued pursuant to the provisions of Sections 11-17-10 to 11-17-120 in anticipation of the issuance of bonds of an authority to be sold to the government.
HISTORY: 1983 Act No. 82, Section 2; 1986 Act No. 312, Section 1; 1986 Act No. 456, Sections 1-4; 1997 Act No. 74, Section 2; 1999 Act No. 113, Sections 4, 5; 2001 Act No. 78, Section 3; 2007 Act No. 59, Section 1, eff June 6, 2007.
Effect of Amendment
The 2007 amendment redesignated items (a) to (m) as items (1) to (13); and rewrote items (1), (3), (5), (6), (7), (8), (11) and (13).