Documentary History of American Water-works

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania became a state in 1787. 

References
1851 An act regulating boroughs.  April 3, 1851
SECTION 2. The powers of the corporation shall be vested in the corporate officers designated in the charter, they shall have power; - XX. To provide a supply of water for the use of the inhabitants.

1857 An act to provide for the incorporation of Gas and Water Companies, March 11, 1857.

1867 An act to enlarge the jurisdiction of the courts of common pleas of this Commonwealth, relative to granting charters of incorporation, and confirming those heretofore granted. March 26, 1867.

1874 An act authorizing the formation of partnership associations, in which the capital subscribed shall alone be responsible for the debts of the association, except under certain circumstances.  April 2, 1874.

1874 An act to provide for the incorporation and regulation of certain corporations. April 29, 1874.  Section 34 governs the incorporation of water companies.

1887 An act supplementary to an act, approved April twenty-ninth, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation and regulation of certain corporations," amending the thirty-fourth section thereof, extending its provisions to fuel companies, providing for their capital stock and regulation, and giving them the power of eminent domain. June 2, 1887

1894 Index to Local Legislation in Pennsylvania from 1700 to 1892: Together with an Index to the Titles of Corporations Organized by Special Acts, and to All Laws Relating Thereto

1895 A supplement to an act, entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation and regulation of certain corporations," approved the twenty-ninth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, further amending the twelfth section thereof, so as to permit corporations organized thereunder, either for the purpose of carrying on any manufacturing business or for the supply of water, or for the manufacture or supplying of light, to purchase bonds or stock of other corporations of the same character, or to guarantee the payment of interest and principal of such bonds, or either principal or interest, or to lease and operate corporate property.  June 26, 1895.

1905 An act providing that the right of eminent domain, as respects the appropriation of streams, rivers or waters, or the land covered thereby, shall not be exercised by water companies incorporated under law.  April 13, 1905.

1905 An act to authorize railroad companies of this Commonwealth, in order to secure an adequate supply of water for their corporate purposes, to acquire, hold, dispose of, and guarantee the stock and securities of water companies.  April 22, 1905.

1907 An act defining the rights and duties of water companies, and compelling them to furnish water to municipalities in which their source or supply is located, or forfeit their rights to a sufficient quantity of water from such sources as will supply the needs of such municipality, city, borough, or township, and the inhabitants thereof; also giving private and municipal water companies, organized under the provisions of this act, the right to condemn, take, and appropriate, with the consent and approval of the State Water Supply Commission, a sufficient quantity of water, from any source of supply lying within the corporate limits of the municipality, when such source of supply is not being utilized for supplying water to such municipality and the inhabitants thereof; also providing that water companies file statements with the State Water Supply Commission, under certain conditions, and making their failure to do so a misdemeanor, and prescribing penalties for a violation of the same.  May 28, 1907.

1907 Providing for the acquiring of water plants or systems by municipalities, from corporations, firms, or individuals, and the manner of ascertaining and arriving at the value of the same; and to authorize municipalities of this Commonwealth to issue bonds, secured by such water plants or systems, for the payment thereof; and to provide a sinking-fund therefor, out of the revenues of said plants.  May 31, 1907.

1907 Report of the Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania

1909 Report of the Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania.  Includes lists of early water companies and all water systems currently operating in the Commonwealth. | List of water systems, 1909  (pdf)  |

1910 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Fifteenth Annual Meeting, October 20 and 21, 1910, Haddon Hall, Atlantic City, N.J.

1911 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Sixteenth Annual Meeting, October 19 and 20, 1911, Atlantic City, N.J.

1913 An act defining public service companies; and providing for their regulation by prescribing and defining their duties and liabilities; prescribing, defining, and limiting their powers, ‘and regulating their incorporation, and. to a limited extent, regulating municipal corporations engaged or about to engage in the business of public service companies; creating ‘and establishing a Public Service Commission for the regulation aforesaid; prescribing and defining the (powers and 'duties of such Commission and its officers, incluing the exclusive power to regulate the construction, alteration, relocation, or abolition of the crossings of railroad corporations, street railway corporations, or other public service companies, and of public highways by the tracks or other facilities of said companies; providing for the ascertainment by the Commission of the expense and damages resulting from such construction, alteration, relocation, or abolition, and for the payment of such expense and damages, severally or proportionately, by the public service companies interested, the State, or municipal corporation concerned, and giving persons whose property is thereby taken, injured. or destroyed, authority to sue the Commonwealth for damages in such cases; providing for the terms, salaries and compensation of the members of the commission, its officers, counsel, and employees; prescribing and regulating the practice and procedure before such commission, and upon appeal and judicial review oi’ its orders and determinations by the courts of common pleas; and giving the court of common pleas of Dauphin County exclusive jurisdiction of such appeals in certain cases, and of all injunctions, mandamus, or other appropriate proceedings to enforce the provisions of this act and the orders of the commission and to restrain such orders, subject to an appeal to the Supreme Court: prescribing penalties, fines, and imprisonment for the violation of the provisions of this act and for the violation of the orders of said commission: making it the duty of the Public Service Commission to enforce the provisions of the act approved the nineteenth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and eleven, entitled “An act to promote the safety of travelers and employees on railroads, by compelling common carriers by railroad to properly man their trains, by amending section nine thereof; repealing the act approved the thirty-first day of May, one thousand nine hundred and seven, which provided for the appointment of the Pennsylvania State Railroad Commission: and sections one and two of the act, approved the fourth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three. entitled "An act to enforce the provisions of the seventeenth article of the Constitution, relative to railroads and canals:" and an act entitled “To provide the maximum car service charges, including car storage charges, that railroad companies and corporations, or associations, may charge and collect on each car loading, and not unloaded within the free time for unloading cars, and fixing the free time that shall be allowed for unloading cars," approved twenty-fourth day of May. Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and seven; and the proviso of clause three and the provisos of clause seven of section thirty~four of the act, entitled “An act to provide for the incorporation and regulation of certain corporations approved the twenty-ninth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, and all other legislation inconsistent with or supplied by this act.  July 26, 1913

1913 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Eighteenth Annual Meeting, October 22, 23 and 24, 1913, Atlantic City, N.J.

1915 An act providing a system of government for boroughs, and revising, amending, and consolidating the laws relating to boroughs.  May 4, 1915.
Chapter VI. Article XVII. Public Service. (a) Water Supply and Water-Works.

1916 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Twenty-First Annual Meeting, October 18, 19 and 20, 1918, Atlantic City, N.J.

1916 Directory of Public Service Companies in Pennsylvania, October 20, 1916.

1918 Water Resources Inventory Report, February 1, 1918, Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania | List of water systems, 1918 (pdf) |

1918 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Twenty-Third Annual Meeting, October 17 and 18, 1919, Atlantic City, N.J.

1919 The Law Relating to Water and Water Power Companies: With an Appendix Containing the Law Relating to the Water Supply Commission, Rules of Procedure and Forms, by Pennsylvania Water Supply Commission

1920 The Pennsylvania Water Works Association. Proceedings Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting, October 20. 21 and 22, 1920, Atlantic City, N.J.

1923 An act authorizing the sale, assignment, disposition, transfer, and conveyance of the franchises and of the property, real, personal and mixed, of any water or power water companies organized prior to the first day of April, one thousand nine hundred and five, to another water or water power company, also organized prior to the first day of April, one thousand nine hundred and five; and providing the manner in which said sale and purchase shall be effected.  May 17, 1923.

1925 Authorizing any city of the third class to acquire by purchase all the facilities, improvements, and franchises of any water corporation operating partly within and partly without the limits of the said city, and, having obtained the same, to supply water to persons, corporations, and municipalities both within the limits of the city and the territory before served by the water corporation without the city; requiring that, before so doing, the approval of the Public Service Commission be had of the action of the selling company, and of the municipal purchase, and of the rendering of this service by the municipality; and regulating the procedure for obtaining this approval ; permitting the city to classify the service outside of the city as different from the service within the city as to rates and otherwise, and subjecting the service by the city beyond its limits to the same regulation and control by the Public Service Commission as to rates, service, and otherwise as though in the territory thus served beyond the limits of the city the serving was by a water corporation; and providing that higher rates or different regulations for the district outside of the .city limits shall not be neld to be unjustly discriminatory for the sole reason that they are different from those in force in the city.  March 23, 1925.

1945 A Report of the Committee on Municipal Authorities of the Joint State Government Commission, April 10, 1945.

2008 Privately Owned Water Companies - Tariff and Annual Report Contacts List As of 4/4/08

The Pennsylvania Bulletin, the Commonwealth's official gazette for information and rulemaking

© 2019 Morris A. Pierce