(a) The owner(s) of any residential property within the interior of which a gas regulator or gas meter is located shall grant reasonable access to the public utility responsible for the maintenance of the regulator or meter in order to perform safety activities as required by law not less than every thirty-six (36) months. Any owner who denies the public utility access to the gas regulator or gas meter shall be subject to termination of service, and the public utility is hereby authorized to relocate the gas regulator or gas meter to the exterior of the property in accordance with the provisions of § 39-2.1-1.
Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 39-2.1-3
- Public utility: means and includes every company that is an electric distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, water, telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining, managing, or controlling any plant or equipment, or any part of any plant or equipment, within this state for manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, directly or indirectly, to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed on, or in connection with, any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state, or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any public highways, parkways, or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission, transportation, or distribution of gas for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling, or power for providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state, or any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well, or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state, including the water supply board of the city of Providence; provided, that, except as provided in § 39-16-9 and in P. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
(b) The owner(s) of property with interior gas regulators or gas meters shall be required to sign a consent form agreeing to the terms set forth in subsection (a).
(c) The owner(s) of residential property are hereby authorized to paint exterior gas regulators, but not the regulator vents, and gas meters in order to blend with color of the property, and may landscape in front of the regulator and/or meter in order to conceal the location thereof.
History of Section.
P.L. 2009, ch. 110, § 1; P.L. 2009, ch. 184, § 1.
