Nestle-USA Beverage Division, Inc. v. Manasquan River Regional Sewerage Authority

No. A-3810-98T5 (750 A.2d 157) (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. May 5, 2000)

ELR Digest

The court holds that the New Jersey Sewerage Authorities Law does not authorize a regional sewerage authority to charge a user already in the system an additional connection fee for increasing its wastewater flow. The user will pay an increased service charge based on the additional daily gallonage resulting from the increased flow. The court first holds that a new connection fee may not be charged unless a new actual physical connection or an enlargement or other such modification of an existing connection is made. Moreover, case law holding that a change of use alone could not justify an additional connection fee also applies to a change of increased flow. Further, the authority's reliance on a definition of connection that includes any operational changes associated with an increase in projected flow is inapplicable to a regional or local sewerage authority. Rather, the definition concerns the state's pollutant discharge elimination system.

The full text of this decision is available from ELR (4 pp., ELR Order No. L-216).

Counsel for Plaintiff
Mark L. Mucci
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae
One Gateway Center, Ste. 603, Newark NJ 07102
(201) 643-8000

Counsel for Defendant
Linda H. Grasso
Cleary, Alfieri & Grasso
Five Ravine Dr., Matawan NJ 07747
(732) 583-7474

[30 ELR 20553]

[OPINION OMITTED BY PUBLISHER IN ORIGINAL SOURCE]