By: Sims S.B. No. 966
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to notice given to landowners by a common carrier.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Section 111.019, Natural Resources Code, is
1-4 amended to read as follows:
1-5 Sec. 111.019. Right of Eminent Domain. (a) Common carriers
1-6 have the right and power of eminent domain.
1-7 (b) In the exercise of the power of eminent domain granted
1-8 under the provisions of Subsection (a) of this section, a common
1-9 carrier may enter on and condemn the land, rights-of-way,
1-10 easements, and property of any person or corporation necessary for
1-11 the construction, maintenance, or operation of the common carrier
1-12 pipeline.
1-13 (c) Common carriers shall have an affirmative duty to
1-14 disclose to the landowner of the proposed right-of-way copies of
1-15 the same tariffs and material safety data sheets concerning the
1-16 commodities to be transported by the common carrier required by the
1-17 commission and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
1-18 Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. Section 11001 et seq.). Disclosure to the
1-19 landowner in the case of material safety data sheets shall be in
1-20 writing and must be given to the landowner not less than 30 days
1-21 prior to acquisition of the right-of-way unless this notice
1-22 provision is knowingly waived in writing by the landowner.
1-23 Disclosure to the landowner in the case of tariffs shall be in
2-1 writing and must be given to the landowner not later than 30 days
2-2 after filing the tariffs with any public authority. Failure of the
2-3 common carrier to provide timely notice shall entitle the landowner
2-4 to seek legal and equitable relief with the common carrier to bear
2-5 costs and attorney fees for any successful landowner action under
2-6 this subsection.
2-7 SECTION 2. Section 111.139, Natural Resources Code, is
2-8 amended to read as follows:
2-9 Sec. 111.139. REPORTS. (a) The commission shall require
2-10 each common carrier to make reports including duly verified monthly
2-11 reports of:
2-12 (1) the total quantities of crude petroleum owned by
2-13 the common carrier in the state;
2-14 (2) the total quantities of crude petroleum held by
2-15 the common carrier in storage for others in the state; and
2-16 (3) the common carrier's unfilled storage capacity.
2-17 (b) The commission shall give no publicity to the stock of
2-18 crude petroleum on hand of any particular common carrier, but the
2-19 commission may, in its discretion, make public the aggregate
2-20 amounts held by all common carriers making reports and their
2-21 aggregate storage capacity.
2-22 (c) The commission shall require each common carrier to
2-23 mail, return receipt requested, a copy of all spill, leak, or
2-24 accident reports required by the commission to owners of land
2-25 affected by the spill, leak, or accident within 30 days of filing
3-1 the report with the commission. If the acquisition of the
3-2 right-of-way occurred more than five years prior to the filing of
3-3 the report and the owners of the land are not known to the common
3-4 carrier or registered with the commission, the common carrier is
3-5 relieved of the requirement to mail notice. The commission shall
3-6 provide for the voluntary registration of the owners of land that
3-7 have granted common carrier pipeline easements.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.