As Amended
SEC. 49-17-303. Legislative findings and declaration of purpose.
(1) It is found and declared that to promote the development and operation of adequate wastewater collection and treatment facilities, a public body corporate and politic of the state shall be created with authority to cause and assist in compliance with the standards of water quality established by the Mississippi Air and Water Pollution Control Law, appearing as section 49-17-1 et seq., Mississippi Code of 1972, and by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, appearing as 33 U.S.C. 1251, as amended, regarding collection and treatment facilities located in the counties bordering the Gulf of Mexico; to plan, acquire, construct, finance, develop, own, operate or maintain wastewater collection and treatment facilities within said counties; and to apply and contract for and to accept grants-in-aid and other funds from the federal government and the state government and their agencies in this regard.
(2) The legislature finds it to be necessary, in order to accomplish the objectives and purposes of the Gulf Coast Regional Wastewater Authority and the public agencies with which it contracts, for the Gulf Coast Regional Wastewater Authority and such public agencies, in the implementation of powers granted pursuant to sections 49-17-301 through 49-17-353, to be authorized to engage in conduct which may be anticompetitive or contrary to prohibition of federal or state antitrust laws; and, accordingly, it is the intent and policy of sections 49-17-301 through 49-17-353 to displace competition with respect to those powers authorized herein to be exercised by the Gulf Coast Regional Wastewater Authority and such public agencies.
(3) The legislature further finds that the authority and powers conferred under sections 49-17-301 through 49-17-353 and the expenditure of public moneys pursuant thereto constitute a valid public purpose; that the creation and establishment of the Gulf Coast Regional Wastewater Authority is necessary and essential to the accomplishment of the aforesaid purposes; that sections 49-17-301 through 49-17-353 operate on a subject in which the state at large is interested; and that each of these matters is declared as a matter of express legislative determination.
SOURCES: Laws, 1980, ch. 521, Sec. 2; 1982, ch. 378, Sec. 1, eff from and after passage (approved March 22, 1982).