As used in this act: "Private firm" means a corporation or other business entity that owns or operates, as of the effective date of this act, an industrial facility engaging in manufacturing operations having a Standard Industrial Classification number within 20-39 inclusive and is financially, technically, and administratively capable of financing, planning, designing, constructing, operating, or maintaining, or any combination thereof, water supply facilities, or of providing water supply services to a public entity under the terms of a partnership agreement awarded pursuant to the provisions of this act; "Water supply facility" means the real property and the plants, structures, interconnections between existing water supply facilities, machinery and equipment and other property, real, personal and mixed, acquired, constructed or operated, as an industrial water supply system jointly owned or operated by two or more private firms, which individually or collectively possess, as of the effective date of this act, a water diversion for said system in excess of fifteen million gallons per day (mgd) under an existing water allocation permit granted by the Department of Environmental Protection pursuant to the "Water Supply Management Act," P.L. 1981, c.262 (C.58:1A-1 et al.), for the purpose of augmenting the natural water resources of the State and making available an increased supply of water for all uses, or of conserving existing water resources, and any and all appurtenances necessary, useful or convenient for the collecting, impounding, storing, improving, treating, filtering, conserving or transmitting of water, and for the preservation and protection of these resources and facilities and providing for the conservation and development of future water supply resources; "Water supply services" means services provided by a water supply facility.
N.J.S. § 58:28-1