New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 17 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND UTILITY SERVICES
Chapter 12 - WATER SERVICES
Part 770 - SMALL WATER UTILITIES
Section 17.12.770.12 - PROTESTS BY RATEPAYERS
Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
A. Suspension of rates upon filing of protest. Rates proposed by a small water utility under 17.12.770 NMAC will be subject to suspension, review, and hearing by the commission upon the timely filing with the commission of a protest.
B. For a utility with one thousand five hundred (1,500) or fewer service connections in any operating district or division, averaged over the previous three (3) consecutive years, a protest must be signed by ten (10) percent, or more, of the utility's ratepayers, or twenty-five (25) ratepayers, whichever is more, receiving service from the utility at the time the change in rate or rates is filed. For purposes of this rule, ratepayer is defined in 17.12.770.7 NMAC.
C. For a utility with more than one thousand five hundred (1,500) but less than five thousand (5,000) service connections in any operating district or division, averaged over the previous three (3) consecutive years, a protest must be signed by ten (10) percent or more of the ratepayers receiving service from the utility at the time the change in rate or rates is filed. For purposes of this rule, ratepayer is defined in 17.12.770.7 NMAC.
D. Timing of protest. Protests shall be filed with the commission no later than twenty (20) days after the utility files with the commission the advice notice proposing the change in rate or rates, and shall conform to the requirements of 17.12.770.13 NMAC.
E. Full review upon protest. Upon the filing of a protest under 17.12.770.12 NMAC and after a commission determination that just cause exists to review the proposed rate or rates, the commission will conduct a full review of the proposed rate or rates under Section 62-8-7 NMSA 1978 and 17.1.2.53 NMAC and under either 17.12.730 NMAC or 17.12.780 NMAC.
