20. Every municipal authority shall be a public body politic and corporate constituting a political subdivision of the State established as an instrumentality exercising public and essential governmental functions to provide for the public health and welfare and shall have perpetual succession and have the following powers:

(1) To adopt and have a common seal and to alter the same at pleasure;

(2) To sue and be sued;

(3) In the name of the municipal authority and on its behalf, to acquire, hold, use and dispose of its service charges and other revenues and other moneys;

(4) In the name of the municipal authority but for the local unit or units, to acquire, rent, hold, lease as lessor, use and dispose of other personal property for the purposes of the municipal authority;

(5) In the name of the municipal authority but for the local unit or units and subject to the limitations of P.L.1957, c.183 (C. 40:14B-1 et seq.), to acquire by purchase, gift, condemnation or otherwise, or lease as lessee, real property and easements therein, necessary or useful and convenient for the purposes of the municipal authority, and subject to mortgages, deeds of trust or other liens, or otherwise, and to hold, lease as lessor, and to use the same, and to dispose of property so acquired no longer necessary for the purposes of the municipal authority;

(6) To produce, develop, purchase, accumulate, distribute and sell water and water services, facilities and products within or without the district, provided that no water shall be sold at retail in any municipality or county without the district unless the governing body of such municipality or county shall have adopted a resolution requesting the municipal authority to sell water at retail in such municipality or county, and the board of public utility commissioners shall have approved such resolution as necessary and proper for the public convenience;

(7) To provide for and secure the payment of any bonds and the rights of the holders thereof, and to purchase, hold and dispose of any bonds;

(8) To accept gifts or grants of real or personal property, money, material, labor or supplies for the purposes of the municipal or county authority, and to make and perform such agreements and contracts as may be necessary or convenient in connection with the procuring, acceptance or disposition of such gifts or grants;

(9) To enter on any lands, waters or premises for the purpose of making surveys, borings, soundings and examinations for the purposes of the municipal authority, and whenever the operation of a septic tank or other component of an on-site wastewater system shall result in the creation of pollution or contamination source on private property such that under the provisions of R.S.26:3-49, a local board of health would have the authority to notify the owner and require said owner to abate the same, representatives of an authority shall have the power to enter, at all reasonable times, any premises on which such pollution or contamination source shall exist, for the purpose of inspecting, rehabilitating, securing samples of any discharges, improving, repairing, replacing, or upgrading such septic tank or other component of an on-site wastewater system;

(10) To establish an inspection program to be performed at least once every three years on all on-site wastewater systems installed within the district which inspection program shall contain the following minimum notice provisions: (i) not less than 30 days prior to the date of the inspection of any on-site wastewater system as described herein, the authority shall notify the owner and resident of the property that the inspection will occur; and (ii) not less than 60 days prior to the date of the performance of any work other than an inspection, the municipal authority shall provide notice to the owner and resident of the property in which the work will be performed. The notice to be provided to such owner and resident under this subsection shall include a description of the deficiency which necessitates the work and the proposed remedial action, and the proposed date for beginning and duration of the contemplated remedial action;

(11) To prepare and file in the office of the municipal authority records of all inspections, rehabilitation, maintenance, and work, performed with respect to on-site wastewater disposal systems;

(12) To make and enforce bylaws or rules and regulations for the management and regulation of its business and affairs and for the use, maintenance and operation of the utility system and any other of its properties, and to amend the same;

(13) To do and perform any acts and things authorized by P.L.1957, c.183 (C. 40:14B-1 et seq.) under, through, or by means of its own officers, agents and employees, or by contracts with any person;

(14) To enter into any and all contracts, execute any and all instruments, and do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient or desirable for the purposes of the municipal authority or to carry out any power expressly given in P.L.1957, c.183 (C. 40:14B-1 et seq.) subject to the “Local Public Contracts Law,” P.L.1971, c.198 (C. 40A:11-1 et seq.);

(15) To extend credit or make loans to any person for the planning, designing, acquiring, constructing, reconstructing, improving, equipping, furnishing, and operating by that person of any part of a solid waste system, sewage treatment system, wastewater treatment or collection system for the provision of services and facilities within or without the district, which in the case of a solid waste system shall be in a manner consistent with the “Solid Waste Management Act,” P.L.1970, c.39 (C. 13:1E-1 et seq.) and in conformance with the solid waste management plans adopted by the solid waste management districts created therein. The credits or loans may be secured by loan and security agreements, mortgages, leases and any other instruments, upon such terms as the authority shall deem reasonable, including provision for the establishment and maintenance of reserve and insurance funds, and to require the inclusion in any mortgage, lease, contract, loan and security agreement or other instrument, provisions for the construction, use, operation and maintenance and financing of that part of the aforementioned systems as the authority may deem necessary or desirable;

(16) Upon the request of a customer: (i) to offer the customer the ability to receive or access, in electronic format, any periodic bill for service sent by the municipal authority to its customers and any additional information sent by the municipal authority to its customers as required by law, provided that any notice of disconnection, discontinuance or termination of service shall be sent to a customer in written form at the customer’s legal mailing address in addition to being sent or being made available in electronic format; and (ii) to provide the customer the option of paying any such periodic bill via electronic means;

(17) In the case of an authority that is a pilot county utilities authority, to fund improvements to county infrastructure pursuant to the provisions of subsection b. of section 40 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C. 40:14B-40); and

(18) To finance the replacement of service connections to a publicly-owned water system, from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property and into the privately-owned structure, for the purpose of replacing residential, commercial, and institutional lead service lines, regardless of possible private service connection ownership.

L.1957, c.183, s.20; amended 1975, c.96, s.4; 1980, c.77, s.4; 1984, c.178, s.2; 2010, c.91, s.2; 2013, c.190, s.5; 2018, c.114, s.2; 2021, c.184, s.2.