Committee advances bill requiring cities to allow connections to long‑standing sewer lines outside city limits

Senator Raum Taylor presented Senate Bill 11‑38, legislation aimed at landowners who seek to connect to existing sewer lines a municipality had previously installed outside its corporate limits. The bill would require a city or town that has operated a sewage system outside its boundaries for 25 years or more to continue to operate that system and provide connections to property owners with a gravity sewer line on their property so long as the system has sufficient capacity. Capacity determinations would be based on a study presented to the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation.

Taylor said the measure responds to situations in Shelby County and elsewhere where municipal annexation practices changed and communities that had sewer infrastructure in place found the city would not grant connections. “There are property owners who have paid for that infrastructure ... and now they want to be able to tie into it,” Taylor said.

The committee adopted amendment 4175 to the bill and then heard questions from committee members, most notably Senator Campbell, who pressed on the practical contours: whether the measure applies to failed or defunct systems, and how capacity and safety would be determined. Senator Taylor said the bill contemplates those concerns and requires a regulatory capacity study by the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation before a municipality could stop operating a system.

The amended bill drew a roll‑call vote. The committee vote recorded seven ayes and two noes; the bill goes to finance for further consideration.

The discussion highlighted competing interests: landowners seeking reasonable access to paid‑for infrastructure and municipalities concerned about system capacity, maintenance liabilities and safety. The bill delegates technical capacity assessments to the state regulatory board rather than prescribing engineering thresholds in statute.