(a) Any storage operator is hereby empowered, after obtaining approval of the board as herein required, to exercise the right of eminent domain in the manner provided by law, to acquire all surface and subsurface rights and interests necessary or useful for the purpose of operating the storage facility (including easements and rights-of-way across lands for transporting, by pipeline or otherwise, gas to and from said facility) and to exercise eminent domain rights to acquire any hydrocarbons therein, pursuant to the provisions hereof. Such power shall be exercised under the procedure provided by Chapter 1A, Title 18.

(b) No rights or interests in storage facilities acquired for the injection, storage and withdrawal of gas by a party who has eminent domain rights under this act and who has obtained an order from the board under the provisions of Section 9-17-152, shall be subject to the exercise of any eminent domain rights; and no portion of any salt dome (including any cavity therein) and no portion of any lands within a radial distance of 1500 feet from the outer wall of a salt dome may be acquired, by exercise of the eminent domain rights granted hereunder, for use as an underground reservoir for storage of gas unless the storage operator has first obtained the consent, in writing, to such use from: (a) at least a 75% in interest (as calculated on a surface acre basis) of the owners of the salt in that portion of the salt dome that is to be acquired or that is within a radial distance of 1500 feet of the proposed underground reservoir, and (b) if said portion of the salt dome is subject to a salt lease, at least 75% in interest (as calculated on a surface acre basis) of the owners of the lessee's rights under said lease.