Section 190-G. Water quality treatment districts

1. The town board of any
  town is hereby  authorized  to  establish  or  extend  a  water  quality
  treatment  district, or more than one such district, for the purposes of
  (a) procuring by purchase, lease or other means,  and  installing  water
  quality  treatment  units  or  devices,  if required; providing periodic
  testing and monitoring of raw and finished water from private  wells  in
  the district; monitoring, modifying, repairing, replacing, operation and
  maintenance,  regenerating water quality treatment units and devices and
  the administering of the treatment and disposal of  residuals  generated
  in  the  operation  of  the  district  pursuant to rules and regulations
  adopted  by  the  public  health  council  under  section  two   hundred
  twenty-five  of  the  public  health law; (b) assisting local, state and
  federal agencies and officials in efforts to establish  causes  of,  and
  implement  remedial  measures to reduce, water contamination and protect
  future water resources within the district; (c) conduct public  meetings
  and  issue  an  annual  public  report to members of the district on the
  operation, financial  position  and  water  quality  condition  of  said
  district.
    2.  A  water  quality  treatment  district  established  hereunder may
  consist of noncontiguous or contiguous benefited parcels of property and
  shall be created by a resolution of the town board, upon petition  after
  a  public  hearing. The petition may be executed and acknowledged by one
  or more of the owners of taxable real property of record situated within
  the town whose private well water is contaminated and at  the  time  the
  petition  is executed and acknowledged, notice and copy of such petition
  shall be submitted to the state department of health.   Upon a  petition
  signed  and acknowledged the town board may, or on its own motion, after
  a public hearing, assemble data relating to the number and  location  of
  private  wells  within  the  town, the contaminants present in the water
  supply in such town's private wells, (for the purposes of this  section,
  "contaminants"   shall   mean  those  substances  found  in  amounts  or
  concentrations which violate federal, state or local laws, guidelines or
  rules and regulations relating to drinking water or  which  may  pose  a
  risk  to public health), the extent of contamination of the water supply
  in the  town's  private  wells,  and  the  availability  of  appropriate
  treatment  technologies  for  the  contaminants  found to be present, or
  which are reasonably expected to be found, currently or in  the  future,
  in  the  water  supply in the town's private wells. Upon presentation of
  the petition or on its own motion, the town board may  direct  or  cause
  maps  and  plans  to be prepared, provided however, that if the owner or
  owners of taxable real property undertake to furnish or pay the cost  of
  such  maps  and  plans  at his or their cost and expense, the town board
  shall accept or  prepare  the  same  or  the  town  board  may  adopt  a
  resolution, subject to a permissive referendum, appropriating a specific
  amount to pay the cost of preparing a general map and plan for providing
  water  quality treatment units or devices and related services. The town
  board may determine that such maps and plans shall  be  prepared  by  or
  under the supervision of town officers and employees to be designated by
  the  town  board,  or by persons to be employed for that purpose, or the
  town  board  may  contract  for  the  preparation  thereof,  within  the
  limitations  of  the amount appropriated.   Except as otherwise provided
  herein, the expense incurred for the preparation of such maps and  plans
  shall  be  a town charge, and shall be assessed, levied and collected in
  the same  manner  as  other  town  charges.  If  the  town  board  shall
  thereafter  establish  or extend a water quality treatment district, the
  expense incurred by the town for the preparation of the maps  and  plans
  therefor shall be deemed to be part of the cost of such improvement, and
  the  town  shall be reimbursed the amount paid therefor, or such portion

  of that amount which the town board, at the public hearing held pursuant
  to section one hundred  ninety-four  of  this  chapter,  shall  allocate
  against  such  district.    Nothing in this section contained, or in any
  other  section of this act, shall be construed to prevent the financing,
  in whole or in part, of expenditures by private sources,  grants  or  by
  other means. All such maps and plans shall be filed with the town clerk.
  Such maps and plans shall show (1) the location of all benefited parcels
  of  properties  with  water quality treatment units or devices installed
  prior to the formation of the district and/or those properties requiring
  installation of water quality treatment units or devices  and  the  mode
  and  frequency  of testing, monitoring, modifying if required, operation
  and maintenance, regenerating of such water quality treatment  units  or
  devices and the administering of the treatment and disposal of residuals
  and  any other requirements pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by
  the public health council under section two hundred twenty-five  of  the
  public  health  law,  and  (2)  estimates  of  the costs of procurement,
  installation, monitoring, testing, modifying, if required, operation and
  maintenance, regenerating of  such  water  quality  treatment  units  or
  devices  and  the treatment and disposal of residuals, and the method of
  financing the same. Any water quality treatment unit or device which has
  been installed prior to the formation of the district must  be  approved
  pursuant  to  rules and regulations adopted by the public health council
  under section two hundred twenty-five of the public health law, prior to
  acceptance of such unit or device and its benefited property within  the
  district.
    3.  Maps  and  plans  shall be submitted to and approved or denied, in
  writing, by the state department of  health.  Copy  of  such  notice  of
  approval or denial shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the town
  in  which  the  proposed  district  or  extension  is located. No public
  hearing shall be called to establish or extend a water quality treatment
  district until such maps and plans  have  been  approved  by  the  state
  department of health.
    4.  After  such  maps  and plans shall have been approved by the state
  department of health, the town board shall, by resolution designate  the
  place  where and time when a public hearing will be held to consider the
  establishment or extension of a water quality  treatment  district.  The
  town  board  shall  cause  a  notice of such hearing to be published and
  posted in the manner prescribed in  section  one  hundred  ninety-three.
  The  notice  shall  comply  with the requirements of section one hundred
  ninety-three as to content, except that no recitation of the filing of a
  petition shall be made. The notice of public  hearing  shall  recite  in
  general terms the purpose thereof and describe the location or locations
  of the proposed district or extension.