§ 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.