(a) Any municipal or regional resource recovery authority created pursuant to this chapter shall have the power to:

(1) Employ a staff and to fix their duties;

(2) Establish offices where necessary in the municipality or the region;

(3) Retain by contract or employ counsel, auditors, engineers, private consultants and advisors;

(4) Sue and be sued;

(5) Have a seal and alter it at pleasure;

(6) Make and alter bylaws and rules and regulations with respect to the exercise of its own powers;

(7) Conduct such hearings, examinations and investigations as may be necessary and appropriate to the conduct of its operations and the fulfillment of its responsibilities;

(8) Obtain access to public records and apply for the process of subpoena if necessary to produce books, papers, records and other data;

(9) Charge reasonable fees for the services it performs and waive, suspend, reduce or otherwise modify such fees, provided such user fees shall apply uniformly within each municipality to all users who are provided with waste management services with respect to a given type or category of wastes, in accordance with criteria established by the authority, and provided further no change may be made in user fees without at least sixty days prior notice to the users affected thereby;

(10) Purchase, lease or rent such real and personal property as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable;

(11) Appoint such advisory councils as it may from time to time deem advisable, including but not limited to, local councils on the continuation and utilization of source-separation and recycling efforts to benefit the people of the municipality or the region;

(12) Otherwise, do all things necessary for the performance of its duties, the fulfillment of its obligations, the conduct of its operations, the maintenance of its working relationships with the state, other municipalities, regions and persons, and the conduct of a comprehensive program for solid waste disposal and resources recovery, and for solid waste management services, in accordance with the provisions of the state-wide or local solid waste management plan, applicable statutes and regulations and the requirements of this chapter;

(13) Own, manage and use real property or any interest therein;

(14) Determine the location and character of any project to be developed under the provisions of this chapter, subject to applicable statutes and regulations and the requirements of the state-wide solid waste management plan;

(15) Purchase, receive by gift or otherwise, lease, exchange, or otherwise acquire and construct, reconstruct, improve, maintain, equip and furnish such waste management projects of the authority as are called for by the state-wide or local solid waste management plan;

(16) Sell or lease to any person, all or any portion of a project of the authority, for such consideration and upon such terms as the authority may determine to be reasonable;

(17) Mortgage or otherwise encumber all or any portion of a project of the authority whenever, in the opinion of the authority, such action is deemed to be in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter;

(18) Grant options to purchase, or to renew a lease for, any project of the authority on such terms as the authority may determine to be reasonable;

(19) Acquire, by purchase, gift, transfer, or by condemnation for public purposes, and manage and operate, hold and dispose of real property and, subject to agreements with lessors or lessees, develop or alter such property by making improvements and betterments with the purpose of enhancing the value and usefulness of such property, except that a municipal authority may not acquire any privately owned solid waste disposal area by condemnation;

(20) Make plans, surveys, studies and investigations necessary or desirable, in conformity with the state and local plan and with due consideration for regional plans, to carry out authority functions with respect to the acquisition, use and development of real property and the design and construction of systems and facilities;

(21) Make short and long-range plans, for the processing and transportation of solid wastes and recovered resources by facilities owned, operated or financed by the authority;

(22) Design or provide for the design of projects of the authority, including design for the alteration, reconstruction, improvement, enlargement or extension of existing facilities;

(23) Construct, erect, build, acquire, alter, reconstruct, improve, enlarge or extend projects of the authority including provision for the inspection and supervision thereof and the engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal and economic investigations and studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures and any other actions incidental thereto;

(24) Own, operate and maintain projects of the authority and make provision for their management and for the manufacturing, processing and transportation operations necessary to derive recovered resources from solid waste, and contracting for the sale of such;

(25) Enter upon lands and waters, as may be necessary, to make surveys, soundings, borings and examinations in order to accomplish the purposes of this chapter;

(26) Contract with municipalities, municipal, state and regional authorities, and state and federal agencies to provide waste management and resource recovery services in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and to plan, design, construct, manage, operate and maintain facilities on their behalf;

(27) Design and construct improvements or alterations on properties which it owns or which it operates by contract on behalf of other municipal or regional authorities, state agencies or municipalities, including the restoration of terminated dumps and landfills to beneficial public or private use;

(28) Contract for services in the performance of architectural and engineering design, the supervision of design and construction, system management and facility management, for such professional or technical services as are specified in this section and for such other professional or technical services as may require either prequalification of a contractor or the submission by any individual, firm or consortium or association of individuals or firms of a proposal in response to an official request for proposal or similar written communication of such authority, whenever such services are, in the discretion of such authority, deemed necessary, desirable or convenient in carrying out the purposes of such authority;

(29) Contract for the construction of projects of the authority with private persons or firms, or consortia of such persons or firms, pursuant to applicable provisions of this chapter, the requirements of applicable regulations and the state and local plan and in accordance with such specifications, terms and conditions as the authority may deem necessary or advisable;

(30) Accept gifts, grants or loans of funds, property or service from any source, public or private, and comply, subject to the provisions of this chapter, with the terms and conditions thereof;

(31) Receive funds from the sale of the authority’s bonds and of its real and personal properties;

(32) Contract for, and receive funds or revenues from the sale of products, materials, fuels and energy in any form derived from the processing of solid waste by systems, facilities and equipment under its jurisdiction, and receive revenues in the form of rents, fees and charges paid by units or agencies of state and local government, and by private persons and organizations, to compensate the authority for the use of its facilities or the performance of its services;

(33) Accept from a federal agency loans or grants for use in carrying out its purposes and enter into agreements with such agency respecting any such loans or grants;

(34) Make loans of the proceeds of its bonds or of its other funds, to any person, including any municipality, municipal authority, state authority, regional authority or private entity, for the planning, design, acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement, equipping and furnishing of a project of the authority, which loans may be secured by loan agreements, contracts or any other instruments or agreements containing such terms and conditions as the authority shall determine necessary or desirable, including provisions for the establishment and maintenance of reserve funds, and for the construction, use, operation and maintenance and the payment of operating and other costs of a project. In connection with the making of such loans, the authority may purchase, acquire and take assignments of the notes and bonds of any municipality, municipal, state or regional authorities and persons and receive other forms of security and evidences of indebtedness, and in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter and to assure the payment of the principal of and interest on such loans, and in order to assure the payment of the principal of and interest on bonds of the authority issued to provide funding for such loans, may attach, seize, purchase, acquire, accept or take title to any project by conveyance, and may sell, lease or rent any project for a use specified in this chapter;

(35) Indemnify and hold harmless any person in connection with the financing of a project or facility;

(36) In connection with the sale, purchase, receipt, lease, exchange, other disposition or acquisition of a project of the authority or of real property, indemnify and hold harmless any person including, without limitation, indemnification against taxation by the federal or state governments respecting any state or local property taxes and any realization of tax benefits or incentives associated with ownership of a project or of real property.

(b) It is the intention of this chapter that the authorities shall be granted all powers necessary to fulfill the purposes of this chapter and to carry out their assigned responsibilities and that the provisions of this chapter are to be construed liberally in furtherance of this intention.

(c) Any contracts authorized by this chapter to be entered into by an authority may be entered into on either a negotiated or an open-bid basis, and the authority in its discretion may select the type of contract it deems most prudent to utilize, considering the scope of work, the management complexities associated therewith, the extent of current and future technological development requirements and the best interests of the municipality or the region. The terms and conditions of such contracts, and the fees or other compensation to be paid to any contracting persons pursuant to such contracts shall be determined by the authority.