§22-35-8. Rehabilitation of contamination sites.

(a) The Legislature finds that in order to provide for the expeditious rehabilitation of contamination sites, voluntary rehabilitation of contamination sites should be encouraged, provided that such rehabilitation is conducted in a manner and to a level of completion which will protect the public health, safety, and welfare and will minimize damage to the environment. To accomplish this purpose, the commission shall promulgate rules and regulations for the approval and compensation of response action contractors or through the use of their own personnel. The state shall not be party to contracts established between an owner or operator and a response action contractor and nothing in this chapter shall be construed as a state contract but to the contrary, it is expressly manifest that these are not state contracts and are expressly exempt from any competitive bid laws.

(b) Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to prohibit a person from conducting site rehabilitation through approved response action contractors.

(c) In the event the director determines that environmental response actions are required, the director may delegate to an approved response action contractor the authority to enter private property, under the supervision of the department, for the purpose of taking investigative and corrective action.

(Acts 1988, No. 88-378, p. 557, §8; Acts 1993, No. 93-628, p. 1062, §8; Act 2002-495, p. 1265, §1.)