During an emergency, the secretary may take easements, quarantine a pollution source, and declare emergency access routes; if long-term rights are needed, the secretary or department must first try negotiation before using eminent domain.
§2036. Easements, rights of way, eminent domain A. When an emergency is declared, the secretary, under the police powers of the state, may, for the duration of the emergency and without compensation to the landowner except for actual damages to property or person, claim a comprehensive easement over the pollution source and all other areas sufficient to secure, contain, clean up, or abate the same. During the existence of an emergency the secretary may also impose a quarantine upon such pollution source until he has determined that the emergency creating a hazard to the public or environment has been abated, contained, or otherwise determined no longer to be a hazard. B. During the first one hundred eighty days of a declared emergency, the secretary is authorized to claim and declare an emergency access route, which shall be held without compensation to the owner except for actual damages to property or person, under the police powers of the state, and the location of such may be over and across either public or private lands and shall be such as are deemed necessary and reasonable for the resolution and control of said emergency. C. When the secretary determines that a period greater than one hundred eighty days will be or is needed for purposes of abating, controlling, or monitoring the pollution source, he shall first attempt to acquire the necessary rights of way by negotiating with the burdened landowner for the purchase or lease thereof, and where the property needed cannot be obtained through negotiations, he may exercise the right of eminent domain to obtain temporary or permanent passage. D. The secretary is hereby authorized and directed to seek to acquire such rights as are necessary to maintain control over such areas by negotiations with the owner of the lands affected. When such rights cannot be acquired through reasonable negotiations, the department is hereby empowered to exercise the right of eminent domain to the same extent and with the same limitations as is applicable to other public purposes set forth in R.S. 19:1 et seq. E. All emergency easements and access routes are to be continued in effect during the term of the emergency until all rights sought under said eminent domain proceedings have been finally vested thereunder unto the state. F. In all cases where the state acquires property rights either amicably or by eminent domain from any person against whom a claim has been asserted who owns or possesses rights in the declared pollution source, payment of all monies for said acquisition shall be withheld until such time as that person's liability has been finally resolved. All funds withheld shall be utilized to offset the liabilities assessed. G. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to deny or limit access to the pollution source by the secretary or his authorized agents for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this Subtitle and as provided in other applicable provisions of law. Added by Acts 1980, No. 194, §6. Acts 1983, No. 97, §1, eff. Feb. 1, 1984.