Senate Bill No. 396
(By Senators Fanning, Bowman and Barnes)
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[Introduced January 31, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §20-2-29, relating to
authorizing the Director of the Division of Natural Resources
to exempt site-specific data on certain rare plant or animal
species and their habitats from disclosure under the Freedom
of Information Act.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §20-2-29, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2. WILDLIFE RESOURCES.
§20-2-29. Conservation of species and request for public records.
(a) The director may exempt from disclosure under the Freedom
of Information Act, article one, chapter twenty-nine-b of this
code, any record concerning the site-specific location of a plant or animal species which is determined by the director to be in need
of conservation to maintain its viability or existence.
(b) The director may not deny the release of records under
subsection (a) of this section if requested by:
(1) The owner of the land upon which the resource is located;
or
(2) An entity which can take the land through the right of
eminent domain.
Persons or entities receiving records under this subsection
may not release the information to the public or release the
information to another entity for commercial purposes.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Director
of the Division of Natural Resources to exempt site-specific data
on certain rare plant or animal species and their habitats from
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.)
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