Establishes civil penalties for extended service interruptions by water suppliers. These penalties would be in addition to other available remedies and damages.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would create financial penalties for water companies in Rhode Island when they fail to provide water service to customers for an extended period of time. Under this proposal, water suppliers — such as private or public water utilities — could be fined if they allow service outages to go on longer than a set amount of time without restoring access to clean drinking water. The goal is to hold water providers accountable for keeping the water running to homes and businesses.

The people most directly affected are Rhode Island residents and businesses who rely on water suppliers for their drinking water. If a water company has a prolonged outage and fails to restore service in a timely manner, the company could face civil fines as a consequence. Importantly, the bill specifies that these penalties would be *in addition to* any other legal remedies or compensation that customers might already be entitled to — meaning customers would still have the right to pursue other claims or damages separately.

The bill has been introduced in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and referred to the House Corporations Committee, where it is scheduled for a hearing. It is still in the early stages of the legislative process and has not yet been passed into law.