IDEM Approved 1 Hour for Wastewater Technical and Water Technical

In March 2020, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Enrolled Act 1131 (HEA 1131) (Ind. Code section 8-1-2-101.5), which requires municipally owned water and wastewater utilities to comply with the main extension rules of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). While the initial focus of HEA 1131 was to create a standard for municipalities to pay for necessary or requested upsizing of mains, it also includes several other provisions that have serious impacts to public municipalities. HEA 1131 went into effect June 30, 2020, but many cities and towns still do not know or understand its implications.

Previously, each public municipality had different processes and “agreements” for utility main extensions requested by developers. Some municipal water and wastewater systems had detailed, written, legal agreements, while others may have just had only a verbal approval of an agreement. In most cases, there were no consistent methodologies or practices in place on how a municipality paid for upsizing when future planning indicated long-term service needs. However, the IURC already had main extension standards that private utilities have been required to follow. HEA 1131 now applies those same IURC main extension rules to public municipalities.

The IURC main extension rules include several major impacts to public municipalities that will likely require some level of change. This presentation will provide an overview of the main extension rules and focus on the follow impacts:

• Explanation and understanding of this new rule
• Development and use of legal agreements
• Required routing evaluations and design
• Bidding and procurement options
• Initial capital cost and investments by the municipality
• Future subsequent connection credits back to developers
• Administration and tracking
• Potential need to review and or update current local rules, regulations, and ordinances

In addition to a review of the requirements and impacts, we will also discuss benefits and challenges of applying these rules to public municipalities, provide examples of how private utilities have been applying these same rules, and discuss how the new requirements would apply to several hypothetical main extension examples.

As more communities begin to understand and follow this new rule, many of these challenges are being identified. Future changes and revisions to HEA 1131 have already been discussed, but for now it is required for all public municipalities.

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