Safety of Pipe-lines
25Power of the Minister to cause steps to be taken for rendering pipe-line, or length thereof, safe on abandonment or cesser of use
1
In either of the following events, namely.—
a
the abandonment of a pipe-line or a length thereof;
b
the expiration of three years from the date on which a pipe-line or a length thereof was last used;
the Minister, if he is of opinion that the line or length is, or is likely to become, a source of danger, may serve on the owner of the line a notice requiring him to do to the line or length such things as may be specified in the notice, being things the doing of which appears to the Minister requisite to stop the line's or length's being or, as the case may be, to prevent its becoming, a source of danger.
2
If a person on whom a notice is served under the foregoing subsection fails, before the expiration of six weeks from the date on which the notice was served, or such longer period as the Minister may on his application allow, to do the things specified in the notice, the Minister may enter and do them and may recover foam that person, in any court of competent jurisdiction, the expenses reasonably incurred by the Minister in doing them.
3
Where, in consequence of compliance with a requirement to do any thing to a pipe-line or length thereof imposed by a notice under subsection (1) of this section, or of the exercise of the power to enter and do any thing to a pipe-line or length thereof conferred by the last foregoing subsection, a person, other than the owner of the line, suffers loss by reason of damage to, or disturbance in the enjoyment of, any land or chattels, he shall be entitled, where the loss was suffered in consequence of such compliance, to compensation in respect of that loss from the owner of the line, or, where the loss was suffered in consequence of the exercise of that power, to compensation in respect of that loss from the Minister; and the Minister may recover from the owner of the line, in any court of competent jurisdiction, the amount of any compensation paid by the Minister under this subsection.