UNAPPROVED DRAFT BILL -- Subject to Change Without Notice!
BILL NO.
INTRODUCED BY
(Primary Sponsor)
A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT REMOVING THE AUTHORITY FOR A COMMON CARRIER PIPELINE TO EXERCISE THE POWER OF EMINENT DOMAIN; AMENDING SECTIONS 69-13-103 AND 70-30-102, MCA; REPEALING SECTION 69-13-104, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE."
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court, in Western Union Telegraph Company v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, 258 U.S. 13 (1922), held that a state legislature may abrogate the right to exercise the power of eminent domain provided that there is no interference with vested rights.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:
Section 1. Section 69-13-103, MCA, is amended to read:
"69-13-103. Right to construct pipelines. (1) The right to A common carrier pipeline may lay, maintain, and operate
pipelines, together with telegraph and telephone lines incidental to and designed for use only in connection with the
operation of such the lines, or along, across, or under any public stream or along, across, or over any public road or highway
in this state is hereby conferred upon all persons, firms, limited partnerships, joint-stock associations, or corporations
coming within any of the definitions of common carrier pipelines as hereinbefore made. This right The authority to run
along, across, or over any public road or highway, as provided for, can only be exercised upon condition that the traffic
thereon on the road or highway is not be interfered with and that such the road or highway be is promptly restored to its
former condition of usefulness. The restoration of the road or highway is subject also to the supervision of the county
commissioners of the county in which said the road or highway is situated.
(2) Any person, firm, limited partnership, joint-stock association, or corporation may acquire the right to construct
pipelines and such incidental telephone and telegraph lines along, across, or over any public road or highway in this state by
after filing with the commission an acceptance of the provisions of this law, expressly agreeing in writing that in
consideration of the right so acquired, it shall be and become is a common carrier pipeline, subject to the duties and
obligations conferred or imposed in this chapter. In the exercise of the privileges herein conferred, such constructing
pipelines, the common carrier pipeline shall compensate the county for any damage done to such a public road or highway
in the laying of pipelines or telegraph or telephone lines along, or across, or over the same road or highway. Nothing herein
shall be construed to grant in this chapter grants any common carrier pipeline company the right to use any public street or
alley in any incorporated city or town except by express permission from the city or governing authority thereof of the city
or town."
Section 2. Section 70-30-102, MCA, is amended to read:
"70-30-102. Public uses enumerated. Subject to the provisions of this chapter, the right of eminent domain may be exercised in behalf of the following public uses:
(1) all public uses authorized by the government of the United States;
(2) public buildings and grounds for the use of the state and all other public uses authorized by the legislature of the state;
(3) (a) public buildings and grounds for the use of any county, city, or town, or school district;
(b) canals, aqueducts, flumes, or ditches, or pipes conducting water, heat, or gas for the use of the inhabitants of any
county, city, or town;
(c) raising the banks of streams, removing obstructions therefrom from streambanks, and widening, deepening, or
straightening their stream channels;
(d) roads, streets, and alleys and all other public uses for the benefit of any county, city, or town or the its inhabitants
thereof, which may be as authorized by the legislature; but. However, the mode of apportioning and collecting the costs of
such improvements shall be such as may be must be provided in the statutes or ordinances by which the same may be
authorized authorizing the improvements;.
(4) wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, of all kinds, private roads, plank and turnpike roads, railroads,
canals, ditches, flumes, and aqueducts, and pipes for:
(a) public transportation,;
(b) supplying mines, mills, and smelters for the reduction of ores; and
(c) supplying farming neighborhoods with water and drainage; and
(d) reclaiming lands; and for
(e) floating logs and lumber on streams that are not navigable; and
(f) sites for reservoirs necessary for collecting and storing water. However, such reservoir sites must possess a public use
demonstrable to the district court as the highest and best use of the land.
(5) (a) roads, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes, and dumping places for working mines, mills, or smelters for the
reduction of ores; also
(b) outlets, natural or otherwise, for the flow, deposit, or conduct of tailings or refuse matter from mines, mills, and smelters for the reduction of ores;
(c) also an occupancy in common by the owners or the possessors of different mines of any place for the flow, deposit,
or conduct of tailings or refuse matter from their several the mines, mills, or smelters for reduction of ores and sites for
reservoirs necessary for collecting and storing water. However, such reservoir sites must possess a public use demonstrable
to the district court as the highest and best use of the land.
(6) private roads leading from highways to residences or farms;
(7) telephone or electric light lines;
(8) telegraph lines;
(9) sewerage of any city, a county, city, or town or any subdivision thereof of a county, city, or town, whether
incorporated or unincorporated, or of any settlement consisting of not less than 10 families, or of any public buildings
belonging to the state or to any college or university;
(10) tramway lines;
(11) electric power lines;
(12) logging railways;
(13) temporary logging roads and banking grounds for the transportation of logs and timber products to public streams,
lakes, mills, railroads, or highways for such time as long as the court or judge may determine; provided, in areas other than
the grounds of state institutions be excepted;
(14) underground reservoirs suitable for storage of natural gas;
(15) to mine and extract ores, metals, or minerals owned by the plaintiff located beneath or upon the surface of property
where the title to said the surface vests in others. However, the use of the surface for strip mining or open-pit mining of coal
(i.e., any mining method or process in which the strata or overburden is removed or displaced in order to extract the coal) is
not a public use, and eminent domain may not be exercised for this purpose;
(16) to restore and reclaim lands strip- or underground-mined for coal and not reclaimed in accordance with Title 82, chapter 4, part 2, and to abate or control adverse affects of strip or underground mining on those lands."
NEW SECTION. Section 3. Repealer. Section 69-13-104, MCA, is repealed.
NEW SECTION. Section 4. Saving clause. [This act] does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, or proceedings that were begun before [the effective date of this act].
NEW SECTION. Section 5. Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.
- END -
Latest Version of LC 27 (LC0027.01)
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Status of this Bill
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