N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 23-1303: Authority to acquire property

§ 23-1303. Authority to acquire property.

1. Any corporation empowered to produce, transport, distribute or

store gas within this state for ultimate public use, which holds an

underground storage permit from the department or which is otherwise

lawfully operating an underground storage reservoir and its buffer zone,

and which after reasonable effort is unable to obtain rights in real

property and wells thereon necessary for activation, operation, or

protection of the storage reservoir and its buffer zone shall, subject

to the applicable provisions of the eminent domain procedure law, have

the authority to acquire such rights as may be required adequately to

examine, prepare, maintain, operate and protect, and for access to such

underground storage reservoir and its buffer zone; provided that no

right of acquisition under this section shall extend to any lands or

interests therein which have been acquired, or, in the hands of the

present holder, could have been acquired by acquisition; and, provided

further, that any acquisition of cemetery lands or burial grounds shall

be in the sound discretion of the court and with due provision for the

relocation of human remains.

2. Underground gas storage operators authorized by this section to

maintain acquisition proceedings before filing a suit for such

acquisition shall have filed with the department a map showing the

location, boundaries and estimated size of surface acreage of the

underground storage reservoir and its buffer zone.

3. Any operator of an underground gas storage reservoir who at any

time controls less than one hundred per cent of the storage rights

within that reservoir and its buffer zone and is authorized by this

section to maintain a proceeding shall acquire the storage rights

remaining in the reservoir and its buffer zone acreage by negotiation or

file and proceed with acquisition proceedings within a reasonable time

but not to exceed a two year period after the first injection of gas, or

after the effective date of this section, whichever is later or within

any extension granted by the department.

4. Any operator who seeks to acquire underground gas storage and

buffer zone rights as authorized by this section shall name as parties

defendant all the owners of all the parcels of property located within

the boundaries of the reservoir and its buffer zone from whom storage

rights have not previously been legally acquired by grant, lease, or

other voluntary agreement; provided, however, that a failure to join the

owners of any parcel in the reservoir and its buffer zone due to

inadvertence shall not constitute a jurisdictional defect in any

proceeding of acquisition.

5. The value of any property acquired pursuant to this section shall

include the value of any commercially recoverable native oil and gas in

place to the extent that the holder of the property interest being

acquired has a right thereto. The same provision shall apply to the

holder of salt rights.

6. The cost of, or possible necessity for, plugging any well or wells,

when such plugging or replugging is or may be made necessary by reason

of the storage use made possible or facilitated by acquisition shall not

be considered in computing the value of property or any interest therein

taken under this section.

7. The use of salt cavities for the storage of gas or other petroleum

products or byproducts shall be at the discretion of the owner of the

salt deposits at the location of the cavity. Salt cavities may be used

for salt recovery and storage with the consent and agreement of the

owners of the salt cavity and the stored material. Conversion of any

salt cavity for the storage of gas or other petroleum products or

byproducts shall be in accordance with section 23-1103 or 23-1301 of

this article.