West Virginia Code § 22-11-17

Power of eminent domain; procedures; legislative finding
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(a) When any person who is owner of an establishment is ordered by the director to stop or
prevent pollution or the violation of the rules of the board or director or to take corrective or
remedial action, compliance with which order will require the acquisition, construction or
installation of a new treatment works or the extension or modification of or an addition to an
existing treatment works, (which acquisition, construction, installation, exteension,
modification or addition of or to a treatment works pursuant to such order is referred to in
this section as "such compliance") such person may exercise the powerr of eminent domain in
the manner provided in chapter fifty-four of this code, to acquire such real property or
interests in real property as may be determined by the director to be reasonably necessary
for such compliance.
(b) Upon application by such person and after twenty days' written notice to all persons
whose property may be affected, the director shall make and enter an order determining the
specific real property or interests in real property, if any, which are reasonably necessary for
such compliance. In any proceeding under this section, the person seeking to exercise the
right of eminent domain herein conferred shasll establish the need for the amount of land
sought to be condemned and that such land is reasonably necessary for the most practical
method for such compliance.
(c) The right of eminent domain herein conferred does not apply to the taking of any
dwelling house or for the takineg of any land within five hundred feet of any such dwelling
house.
(d) The Legislature hereby declares and finds that the taking and use of real property and
interests in real property determined to be reasonably necessary for such compliance
promotes the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of this state by reducing and
abating pollution in the waters of this state in which the public at large has an interest and
otherwise; that such taking and use are necessary to provide and protect a safe, pure and
adeWquate water supply to the municipalities and citizens of the state; that because of
topography, patterns of land development and ownership and other factors it is impossible in
many cases to effect such compliance without the exercise of the power of eminent domain
and that the use of real property or interests in real property to effect such compliance is a
public use for which private property may be taken or destroyed.

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