A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to require community water systems that regularly serve one thousand or more service connections or three thousand or more individuals to prepare Local Water Supply Plans and to authorize the secretary of environment and natural resources to make drought designations.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 143‑355(l) reads as rewritten:
"(l)	For purposes of this subsection, 'community water system' means a community water system, as defined in G.S. 130A-313(10), that regularly serves 1,000 or more service connections or 3,000 or more individuals. Each unit of local government that provides public water service or that plans to provide public water service and each community water system shall, either individually or together with other units of local government and community water systems, prepare a local water supply plan and submit it to the Department. The Department shall provide technical assistance with the preparation of plans to units of local government and community water systems upon request and to the extent that the Department has resources available to provide assistance. At a minimum, each unit of local government and community water system shall include in local water supply plans all information that is readily available to it. Plans shall include present and projected population, industrial development, and water use within the service area; present and future water supplies; an estimate of the technical assistance that may be needed at the local level to address projected water needs; current and future water conservation and water reuse programs; a description of how the local government or community water system will respond to drought and other water shortage emergencies and continue to meet essential public water supply needs during the emergency; and any other related information as the Department may require in the preparation of a State water supply plan. Local plans shall be revised to reflect changes in relevant data and projections at least once each five years unless the Department requests more frequent revisions. The revised plan shall include the current and anticipated reliance by the local government unit or community water system on surface water transfers as defined by G.S. 143‑215.22G. Local plans and revised plans shall be submitted to the Department once they have been approved by each unit of local government and community water system that participated in the preparation of the plan."
SECTION 2.  Article 38 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 143-355.1.  Drought designations.
(a)	In order to alert units of local government and public water systems, as defined in G.S. 130A-313(10), to the likelihood of potential drought and the severity of existing drought, the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources may do any of the following:
(1)	Designate certain areas of the State where drought conditions are impending.
(2)	Designate certain areas of the State as suffering from drought conditions.
(3)	Designate the level of severity of drought conditions.
(b)	In making any of the designations described in subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary may consult with representatives of public water systems and federal, State, and local governmental agencies that are involved in water management or are responsible for addressing drought impacts. The Secretary may appoint a drought management advisory council composed of representatives of public water systems and federal, State, and local governmental agencies that are involved in water management and are responsible for drought impacts to assist with making the determinations described in subsection (a) of this section."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.  The first local water supply plans prepared by community water systems pursuant to G.S. 143‑355(l), as amended by Section 1 of this act, are due on or before 1 January 2004.