Brief(1)
H.B. 2732 would allow the Secretary of Health and Environment to establish a program of annual certification and approval of sanitary sewer system extensions, without the necessity of securing an additional permit from the Secretary. This program would be developed through administrative rules and regulations. In order to be eligible for the approval program, the plans for the sewer extension must be prepared by a professional engineer and conform to the minimum standard of design for water pollution control facilities published by the Secretary. The bill would stipulate that the operators of public sanitary sewer systems would qualify for this certification only if the Secretary determines that the system has staff or persons under contract qualified to approve sewer extensions and the system complies with any conditions that the Secretary establishes.
Background
Testifying in support of the bill included representatives of the following entities: the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners, the League of Kansas Municipalities, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The conferee from Johnson County indicated that similar authority had been given for extensions of public water distribution systems in 1996 and that the language of the bill was similar to those statutory provisions. The conferee noted that the measure would remove a 2-3 week delay for developers and save on overhead. There were no opponents to the bill.
The House Environment Committee amended the bill to provide that operators of sewer systems could take advantage of the program developed by the Secretary if the operators of the systems had qualified "persons under contract" to approve the extensions of the sewer systems.
The fiscal note indicated that there are anticipated costs associated with the establishment of rules and regulations under the bill, but that the agency has not yet responded to a request for a fiscal impact statement.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.