republic-os/legislation/us/states/in/2021/hb-1287.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water or wastewater service."
description: "Allows a water or wastewater utility to extend service to a developed but underserved area without a deposit from customers if the extension of service will result in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period. Provides that the extension of service will be considered as resulting in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period to the extent that rates to be paid by 50% or more of the customers who could be served by the extension of service would enable the utility to fully recover the weighted cost of debt and depreciation expense attributable to the cost of the main extension for the extension of service. Provides that if a water or wastewater utility determines that an extension of service will not result in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period, the utility may require a deposit or other adequate assurance of performance from the customers to be served by the extension of service. Provides that if a property owner makes an improvement to the property owner's dwelling, the property owner is not required to upgrade or discontinue use of the property's septic tank soil absorption system or to connect to a sewer system if the improvement does not include the addition of a bedroom or bedroom equivalent and the property owner receives a written determination from a qualified inspector that the septic tank soil absorption system is not failing. Provides that if a tract of land is located within the boundaries of a conservancy district established for sewage purposes, no structure located on the tract of land is connected to or served by the conservancy district's sewage service, the tract of land has been annexed by a municipality that will provide sewer service to the tract of land, and other conditions are met, the owner of the tract of land may petition the court that established the conservancy district for the removal of the tract of land from the boundaries of the conservancy district."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1287"
citation: "Indiana HB 1287 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["SOLID WASTE", "UTILITIES", "WATER", "Availability and Quality of Drinking Water"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eric Koch", "Jim Pressel", "Jon Ford"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 23
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-01-14"
last_action: "2021-04-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f03fe727-03f4-4360-8617-7a3571831ad0"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2021/bills/house/1287"
source_hash: "e7920418ab931aea7b49038945b28fde4027099f69c7158553e4748af3991edd"
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 HB 1287 (2021) — Water or wastewater service.

Allows a water or wastewater utility to extend service to a developed but underserved area without a deposit from customers if the extension of service will result in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period. Provides that the extension of service will be considered as resulting in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period to the extent that rates to be paid by 50% or more of the customers who could be served by the extension of service would enable the utility to fully recover the weighted cost of debt and depreciation expense attributable to the cost of the main extension for the extension of service. Provides that if a water or wastewater utility determines that an extension of service will not result in a positive contribution to the utility's overall cost of service over a 20 year period, the utility may require a deposit or other adequate assurance of performance from the customers to be served by the extension of service. Provides that if a property owner makes an improvement to the property owner's dwelling, the property owner is not required to upgrade or discontinue use of the property's septic tank soil absorption system or to connect to a sewer system if the improvement does not include the addition of a bedroom or bedroom equivalent and the property owner receives a written determination from a qualified inspector that the septic tank soil absorption system is not failing. Provides that if a tract of land is located within the boundaries of a conservancy district established for sewage purposes, no structure located on the tract of land is connected to or served by the conservancy district's sewage service, the tract of land has been annexed by a municipality that will provide sewer service to the tract of land, and other conditions are met, the owner of the tract of land may petition the court that established the conservancy district for the removal of the tract of land from the boundaries of the conservancy district.

## Version chain

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

1. **Engrossed House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1287/versions/HB1287.04.ENGS)
2. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1287/versions/HB1287.05.ENRS)
3. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1287/versions/HB1287.02.COMH)
4. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1287/versions/HB1287.03.COMS)
5. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1287/versions/HB1287.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1287 - Ford Jon - 3rd Reading — **49–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Eric Koch — primary (person)
- Jim Pressel — primary (person)
- Jon Ford — primary (person)
- Ethan Manning — coauthor (person)
- Lonnie Randolph — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-14** Coauthored by Representative Manning
- **2021-01-14** Authored by Representative Pressel
- **2021-01-14** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-01-28** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-01** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-02-02** Senate sponsors: Senators Ford Jon and Koch
- **2021-02-02** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 52: yeas 95, nays 0 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-03** Referred to the Senate
- **2021-02-18** First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-25** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-04-08** Amendment #1 (Ford Jon) prevailed; voice vote `amendment-failure, amendment-passage`
- **2021-04-08** Amendment #4 (Garten) prevailed; voice vote `amendment-failure, amendment-passage`
- **2021-04-08** Second reading: amended, ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-04-12** Senator Randolph added as cosponsor
- **2021-04-13** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 422: yeas 49, nays 0 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-04-14** Returned to the House with amendments `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-15** Motion to concur filed
- **2021-04-19** House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 458: yeas 78, nays 0 `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-22** Signed by the Speaker
- **2021-04-23** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2021-04-28** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2021-04-29** Public Law 189
- **2021-04-29** 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/f03fe727-03f4-4360-8617-7a3571831ad0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).