1534 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 676

structing said systems. Privately owned systems shall be taken
under said condemnation by the Commission free and clear of
all debts and liens, but said Commission shall make a party
defendant any person, firm or corporation having any record
lien or encumbrance against the same, and the Circuit Court
is hereby empowered and authorized to determine the respec-
tive amounts due the defendants, and from and after pay-
ment into Court or to the proper parties, the Commission shall
be authorized to take possession of, maintain and operate said
system, whether private or municipal, as a part of its general
system, and from the date of such payment all properties
along the line of any water main or sewer of the system so
acquired shall stand in the same relation, bear the same benefit
assessment, and be subject to the same regulations and penalties,
as though the system so acquired had been constructed and
put into operation by the Commission under the provisions of
this Act; provided, however, that no building or premises actu-
ally connectied in an adequate manner with the said acquired
system at the time of its purchase shall be required to pay any
connection charge. Wherever there is in existence a privately
owned water supply or sewerage system which in the judg-
ment of the Commission is unfit, as a whole or in part, for
incorporation with the Commission's system, the Commission
shall disregard the existence of said system or unfit part there-
of and extend its system to serve the area tributary to the
existing system or unfit part thereof, and all the provisions
of this Act relating to systems constructed by the Commission
shall apply to said extension. Any municipality whose sys-
tem is acquires by the Commission, whether by purchase or
condemnation, is hereby authorized to use the amount paid
to it for said system for the purchase or redemption of
any bonds or debt which may be outstanding against the same;
or the Commission may, as a part of the purchase price of said
system, assume the payment of any such outstanding bonds.
The Commission shall not purchase any existing water, sewer
mains or systems, in whole or in part, which are improperly con-
structed, or are not of sufficient capacity or were constructed
without proper authority from the State Department of Health
since the passage of the Act requiring the same.

SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That after the pass-
age of this Act, whenever a municipality or the property
owners or residents of any locality in the Sanitary District
shall desire a water supply, sewerage or drainage system, or
part thereof, to be constructed in that municipality or local-
ity, and the Commission shall decide that it is inexpedient or
impracticable at that time, owing to the remoteness from its
general system or other causes, to build such system, such