Section 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.