2019 -- S 0411 | |
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LC001076 | |
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | |
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY | |
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019 | |
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A N A C T | |
RELATING TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY -- ESTABLISHING THE "PROTECTION | |
FROM INVASIVE PLANT SPECIES ACT" | |
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Introduced By: Senator Erin Lynch Prata | |
Date Introduced: February 27, 2019 | |
Referred To: Senate Environment & Agriculture | |
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: | |
1 | SECTION 1. Title 2 of the General Laws entitled "AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY" |
2 | is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: |
3 | CHAPTER 16.2 |
4 | THE PROTECTION FROM INVASIVE PLANT SPECIES ACT |
5 | 2-16.2-1. Short title. |
6 | This chapter shall be known and may be cited as "The Protection from Invasive Plant |
7 | Species Act." |
8 | 2-16.2-2. Definitions. |
9 | For purposes of this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: |
10 | (1) "Director" means the director of the Rhode Island department of environmental |
11 | management and the director's authorized agents. |
12 | (2) "Kind" means one or more related species or subspecies which, singly or collectively, |
13 | is known by one common name, for example corn, oats, alfalfa, and timothy. |
14 | (3) "Invasive plant" means a plant or plant species nonnative to Rhode Island and which |
15 | grows or spreads aggressively and displaces other plants. |
16 | (4) "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, company, society or |
17 | association. |
18 | (5) "Prohibited noxious invasive plant" means invasive plants that reproduce by seed or |
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1 | spread by underground roots, stems and other reproductive parts, and which, when well |
2 | established, are highly destructive and difficult to control in this state by ordinary good cultural |
3 | practice. |
4 | (6) "Running bamboo" means any bamboo in the genus Phyllostachys, including, but not |
5 | limited to, Phyllostachys aureosulcata. |
6 | (7) "Seize" means a legal process carried out by court order against a specific plant or |
7 | plants. |
8 | (8) "Stop sale" means an administrative order, provided by law, restraining the sale, use, |
9 | disposition, and/or movement of a specific plant or plants. |
10 | (9) "Type" means a group of varieties so nearly similar that the individual varieties |
11 | cannot be clearly differentiated except under special conditions. |
12 | (10) "Variety" means a subdivision of a kind characterized by growth, yield, plant, fruit, |
13 | seed, or other characteristics, by which it can be differentiated from other plants of the same kind. |
14 | 2-16.2-3. Duties and authority of the director of the department of environmental |
15 | management. |
16 | (a) The duty of enforcing this chapter and carrying out its provisions and requirements is |
17 | vested in the director of the department of environmental management. It is the duty of the |
18 | director, who may act through his or her authorized agents: |
19 | (1) To sample, inspect, make analysis of, and test invasive plants transported, sold, or |
20 | offered or exposed for sale within the state for planting purposes, at any time and place and to any |
21 | extent as the director may deem necessary to determine whether those invasive plants are in |
22 | compliance with the provisions of this chapter; to notify promptly the person who transported, |
23 | sold, offered, or exposed the plant for sale, of any violation; |
24 | (2) To prescribe and, after a public hearing following public notice, to adopt rules and |
25 | regulations governing the method of sampling, inspecting, analyzing, testing, and examining |
26 | invasive plants and the rules to be followed in the administration of this chapter, which shall be in |
27 | general accord with officially prescribed practices in interstate commerce and any other rules and |
28 | regulations that may be necessary to secure efficient enforcement of this chapter; |
29 | (3) To prescribe and, after a public hearing following public notice, establish, add to, or |
30 | subtract from by regulations a prohibited noxious invasive plant list; and |
31 | (4) To prescribe and, after a public hearing following public notice, to adopt rules and |
32 | regulations establishing reasonable standards of planting, growing, maintaining and sale or |
33 | transfer of invasive plants. |
34 | (b) For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this chapter, the director, |
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1 | individually or through the director's authorized agents, is authorized: |
2 | (1) To enter upon any public or private premises during regular business hours in order to |
3 | have access to invasive plants and the records connected with the premises subject to this chapter |
4 | and rules and regulations under this chapter, and any truck or other conveyor by land, water, or |
5 | air at any time when the conveyor is accessible, for the same purpose; |
6 | (2) To issue and enforce a written or printed "stop sale" order to the owner or custodian |
7 | of any lot of plants that the director finds is in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter or |
8 | rules and regulations promulgated under this chapter. That order shall prohibit further sale, |
9 | processing, and movement of the plants, except on approval of the director, until the director has |
10 | evidence that the law has been complied with and the director has issued a release from the "stop |
11 | sale" order of the plants; provided, that in respect to plants that has been denied sale, processing, |
12 | and movement as provided in this subsection, the owner or custodian of the plants has the right to |
13 | appeal from the order to a court of competent jurisdiction in the locality in which the plants are |
14 | found, praying for a judgment as to the justification of the order and for the discharge of the |
15 | plants from the order prohibiting the sale, processing, and movement in accordance with the |
16 | findings of the court. The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed as limiting the right |
17 | of the director to proceed as authorized by other sections of this chapter; |
18 | (3) To establish and maintain or make provisions for invasive plant-testing facilities; to |
19 | employ qualified persons; and to incur any expenses that may be necessary to comply with these |
20 | provisions; |
21 | (4) To make or provide for making tests of invasive plants for farmers and dealers on |
22 | request; to prescribe rules and regulations governing that testing; and to fix and collect charges |
23 | for the tests made. Fees shall be accounted for in any manner that the state legislature may |
24 | prescribe; and |
25 | (5) To cooperate with the United States Department of Agriculture and other agencies in |
26 | invasive plant law enforcement. |
27 | (c) Jurisdiction in all matters pertaining to the cultivation, harvesting, production, |
28 | processing, certification, labeling, inspection, analyzing, testing, sampling, classification, |
29 | designation, advertising, marketing, sale, storage, transportation, distribution, possession, |
30 | notification of use, planting, and other use of invasive plants is, by this chapter, vested |
31 | exclusively in the director, to the exclusion of all local ordinances or regulations. |
32 | (1) All acts or parts of acts, whether general, special, or local, inconsistent with this |
33 | section are expressly repealed, declared to be invalid, and of no effect. |
34 | 2-16.2-4. Running bamboo restriction. |
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1 | (a) A person planting running bamboo shall do so in compliance with all applicable |
2 | regulations promulgated by the director, and shall not plant running bamboo or allow running |
3 | bamboo to be placed within one hundred feet (100') of any abutting property or public right-of- |
4 | way unless wholly contained within a barrier system or container. |
5 | (b) Any person planting running bamboo in violation of subsection (a) of this section or |
6 | who allows running bamboo to migrate to any neighboring property shall be liable for the costs of |
7 | removal and for damage to the neighboring property. |
8 | (c) Any retail seller or installer of running bamboo shall comply with all applicable |
9 | regulations promulgated by the director and shall provide the purchaser of the running bamboo |
10 | with a written disclosure of the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) of this section. |
11 | 2-16.2-5. Order to destroy invasive plants. |
12 | If the director or his or her authorized agent finds on examination any nursery, |
13 | greenhouse, field or farm crop, forest, small fruit plantation, cemetery, storehouse or elevator, |
14 | conveyance, or any other private or public premises, any invasive plant or invasive plants which |
15 | are likely, in the opinion of the director, to endanger adjacent property or the welfare of the |
16 | agricultural economy of the state, the director may declare the premises or plants, to be a public |
17 | nuisance, and shall notify the owner or person having charge of the premises or plants, to that |
18 | effect, in writing, and the owner or person in charge upon receipt of the written notification, shall |
19 | within a period of time that shall be specified on the written notification by the director, cause the |
20 | removal and sanitary destruction of all invasive plants. |
21 | 2-16.2-6. Seizure -- Condemnation. |
22 | Any invasive plant or plants not in compliance with the provisions of this chapter and the |
23 | implementing rules promulgated by the director are subject to seizure on complaint of the director |
24 | to a court of competent jurisdiction in the locality in which the plants are located. In the event the |
25 | court finds the plants to be in violation of this chapter and orders the condemnation of the plants, |
26 | then the plants shall be destroyed, or otherwise disposed of in compliance with the laws of this |
27 | state and in no instance shall the court order the disposition of the plants without first having |
28 | given the claimant an opportunity to apply to the court for the release of the plants. |
29 | 2-16.2-7. Injunction. |
30 | When in the performance of his or her duties the director applies to any court for a |
31 | temporary or permanent injunction restraining any person from violating or continuing to violate |
32 | any of the provisions of this chapter or any rules and regulations under this chapter, the injunction |
33 | is to be issued without bond. |
34 | 2-16.2-8. Violations and prosecutions. |
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1 | (a) Every violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a civil violation |
2 | punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100) for the first offense and not |
3 | exceeding two hundred fifty dollars ($250) for each subsequent similar offense. |
4 | (b) No prosecution under this chapter shall be instituted without the individual first |
5 | having been given an opportunity to appear before the director or his or her duly authorized |
6 | agent, to introduce evidence either in person or by agent or attorney at a private hearing. If, after |
7 | the hearing, or without the hearing in case the individual or his or her agent or attorney fails or |
8 | refuses to appear, the director is of the opinion that the evidence warrants prosecution, the |
9 | director shall proceed as provided in this section. |
10 | (c) It is the duty of the director to institute proceedings at once against any person |
11 | charged with a violation of this chapter, if, in the judgment of the director, the information |
12 | submitted warrants that action. |
13 | (d) After judgment in any case arising under this chapter, the director shall publish any |
14 | information pertinent to the issuance of the judgment in any media as the director may designate |
15 | from time to time. |
16 | SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage. |
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EXPLANATION | |
BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL | |
OF | |
A N A C T | |
RELATING TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY -- ESTABLISHING THE "PROTECTION | |
FROM INVASIVE PLANT SPECIES ACT" | |
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1 | This act would place restrictions on the planting and growing of invasive plant species in |
2 | the state of Rhode Island. Specific restrictions would be placed on "running bamboo". The |
3 | director of the department of environmental management would promulgate rules to carry out |
4 | provisions of this chapter. The act would also impose fines for violations. |
5 | This act would take effect upon passage. |
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