Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 76. LAND RESOURCES AND USE

CHAPTER 7. ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL EASEMENT ACT

Part 2. Environmental Control Easements

Liability

76-7-213. Liability. (1) The creation and approval of an environmental control easement do not waive or release any statutory liability or other obligation of a person for hazardous wastes or substances at an environmental control site. A federal public entity or public body may enforce any applicable law or obligation without regard to any allocation of liability in an easement instrument and without regard to exhaustion of remedies against any party to an easement instrument.

(2) An owner of a site to which the environmental control easement applies and any lessee or licensee of the land are liable for any violation of the provisions of the easement and are liable for abating the violation and for all damages, costs, and attorney fees arising from or attributable to the violation.

(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the holder or other named beneficiary of an environmental control easement or other person enforcing the easement is not liable for hazardous wastes or substances at the environmental control site or for the release of a hazardous or deleterious substance from a facility at the site based upon its ownership of the easement or based upon its maintenance, monitoring, enforcement, or other actions with respect to the easement.

History: En. Sec. 20, Ch. 503, L. 1999.