Committee hears testimony on House Bill 1459 to require asset-management plans for unregulated water and sewer utilities

Representative Pressell told the committee that House Bill 1459 would require unregulated water and wastewater utilities to adopt and file asset-management programs and create a three-strike enforcement sequence aimed at protecting ratepayers.

"House Bill 14 59 really focuses around asset management programs for unregulated sewer and wastewater utilities," Representative Pressell said, describing the measure as "a good rate payer protection bill." The bill would require utilities not currently under IURC jurisdiction to file an asset-management program with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission every four years and describes stepwise consequences for repeated compliance failures.

The bill’s text, as explained at the hearing, directs that after an IDEM violation the IURC would work with the utility — within a stated period (30 days, per testimony) — to document how the utility will address the problem. A second violation for the same deficiency would prompt an informal IURC review (described in testimony as an informal rate case), and a third violation would subject the utility to receivership under the terms described in the bill author’s presentation.

Tom Eisley of Purdue University provided a progress report on a Purdue-led pilot to develop asset-management plans for very small utilities. Purdue has worked on an interim plan for a community referred to at…