republic-os/legislation/us/states/in/2020/sb-254.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water and wastewater utilities."
description: "Amends the law allowing the adjustment of a water or wastewater utility's rates and charges to enable the utility to recover the cost of eligible infrastructure improvements, by providing that the general maximum limit on the revenues used in determining the adjustment does not apply to infrastructure improvement costs associated with the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of a highway, street, or road. Amends the law that allows a public water utility to treat the costs of replacing customer-owned lead service lines as eligible infrastructure improvements for which a utility's rates and charges may be adjusted, by providing that the law applies to municipally owned utilities as well as public utilities. Establishes a procedure under which a public utility, municipally owned utility, or not-for-profit utility that provides water or wastewater service to the public and is under the jurisdiction of the commission for the approval of rates and charges may seek to recover, through a periodic rate adjustment, the cost of certain utility plant or equipment expenditures that are related to compliance with environmental requirements or made for health, safety, or environmental protection purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 254"
citation: "Indiana SB 254 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["UTILITIES", "UTILITY REGULATORY COMMISSION", "WATER generally"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ed Charbonneau", "Edmond Soliday", "Eric Koch", "Susan Glick"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 25
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-01-09"
last_action: "2020-03-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a5190dd8-4799-4493-a6b6-e5e5e64731e8"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/bills/senate/254"
source_hash: "4c134fc6b86dd1faf7d6e3558ab36b2ceb223031d2e289d2090a5ea3de46509d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-in"]
---

# Indiana SB 254 (2020) — Water and wastewater utilities.

Amends the law allowing the adjustment of a water or wastewater utility's rates and charges to enable the utility to recover the cost of eligible infrastructure improvements, by providing that the general maximum limit on the revenues used in determining the adjustment does not apply to infrastructure improvement costs associated with the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of a highway, street, or road. Amends the law that allows a public water utility to treat the costs of replacing customer-owned lead service lines as eligible infrastructure improvements for which a utility's rates and charges may be adjusted, by providing that the law applies to municipally owned utilities as well as public utilities. Establishes a procedure under which a public utility, municipally owned utility, or not-for-profit utility that provides water or wastewater service to the public and is under the jurisdiction of the commission for the approval of rates and charges may seek to recover, through a periodic rate adjustment, the cost of certain utility plant or equipment expenditures that are related to compliance with environmental requirements or made for health, safety, or environmental protection purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Enrolled Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/SB0254/versions/SB0254.04.ENRH)
2. **Introduced Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/SB0254/versions/SB0254.01.INTR)
3. **Senate Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/SB0254/versions/SB0254.02.COMS)
4. **Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/SB0254/versions/SB0254.03.COMH)

## Votes

- SB 254 - Soliday - 3rd Reading — **87–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 254 - Charbonneau - 3rd Reading — **45–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ed Charbonneau — primary (person)
- Edmond Soliday — primary (person)
- Eric Koch — primary (person)
- Susan Glick — primary (person)
- David Niezgodski — coauthor (person)
- Dollyne Sherman — cosponsor (person)
- Ethan Manning — cosponsor (person)
- J.D. Ford — coauthor (person)
- James Merritt — coauthor (person)
- John Ruckelshaus — coauthor (person)
- Lonnie Randolph — coauthor (person)
- Mark Stoops — coauthor (person)
- Ryan Hatfield — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-09** Authored by Senators Charbonneau, Koch, Glick
- **2020-01-09** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-14** Senator Niezgodski added as coauthor
- **2020-01-16** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-16** Senator Stoops added as coauthor
- **2020-01-21** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-01-21** Senators Ford J.D. and Randolph added as coauthors
- **2020-01-23** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 47: yeas 45, nays 1 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-01-23** House sponsor: Representative Soliday
- **2020-01-23** Senator Merritt added as coauthor
- **2020-01-23** Senator Ruckelshaus added as coauthor
- **2020-01-27** Referred to the House
- **2020-02-10** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-02-13** Representative Manning added as cosponsor
- **2020-02-20** Representative Hatfield added as cosponsor
- **2020-02-20** Representative Sherman D added as cosponsor
- **2020-02-24** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-27** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-03-02** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 236: yeas 87, nays 0 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-03-03** Returned to the Senate without amendments
- **2020-03-09** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2020-03-16** Signed by the Speaker
- **2020-03-18** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2020-03-21** Public Law 137
- **2020-03-21** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a5190dd8-4799-4493-a6b6-e5e5e64731e8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).