§ 2-16-3. Powers of director. The director is authorized and empowered:

(1) To enforce all provisions of this chapter, and to have charge of all matters pertaining to official control, suppression, extermination, or exclusion of all plant pests, whether members of the plant or animal kingdom, which are, or threaten to become, serious pests of plants of economic importance, or are in any other way inimical to the welfare of the plant industry of the state;

(2) To enter into agreements with authorized plant pest control officials of the United States department of agriculture and of other states for the cooperative carrying out of programs consistent with the intents and purposes of this chapter;

(3) To pronounce, declare, and publish any animal, plant, virus, bacterium, conveyance, structure, or inanimate object, singly, in groups, or as a category, to constitute a plant pest, as defined and to define any plant pest so declared to be a public nuisance and also, to define and limit circumstances or conditions under which these definitions shall hold in any given instance;

(4) To establish, in the manner set forth in § 2-16-10, and to enforce, by appropriate rules and regulations, quarantines prohibiting or restricting the transportation of injurious insects and of any class of plant or plant parts, or any object or combination of objects, capable of carrying any serious plant pest, or of itself constituting a pest, with reference to which the secretary of agriculture of the United States has not determined that a quarantine is necessary and established a quarantine, into or through this state or any portion of this state from any other state or territory, the District of Columbia, or any part of any other state or territory, or of the District of Columbia, in which the director shall have found the plant pest to exist;

(5) To establish, and maintain, in the manner set forth in § 2-16-10, a quarantine against any premises or geographical area in this state where a serious plant pest is found to occur, when a quarantine appears to be necessary and promises to be the most efficacious means for preventing or retarding the spread of the plant pest into other premises or communities to the detriment of the welfare of the agricultural economy of the state;

(6) To make rules and regulations for the seizure, inspection, disinfection, disinfestation, reshipment, destruction, or other disposition of any plant or plant parts or any inanimate article capable of carrying dangerous insect infestation, plant diseases, or any other plant pest, a quarantine with respect to which has been established by the secretary of agriculture of the United States, and which has been transported to, into, or through this state in violation of that quarantine;

(7) To make rules and orders, not contrary to law, regarding the destruction of infected or infested plants, plant parts, and plant products and to seize, treat, disinfect, disinfest, or destroy any plants, plant parts, or plant materials, or other articles moved in violation of any quarantine, rule or regulation established under provision of this chapter or under any other act which has been or may be enacted against specific plant pests and entrusted to his or her jurisdiction, or suspected of being infected or infested by any serious plant pest, and also, to prohibit or regulate the transportation of plants, plant parts, plant materials and inanimate articles likely to carry dangerous plant pests, and to designate certain areas or districts where all those plants and articles may be destroyed;

(8) To enter, in a manner not contrary to law, any public or private premises, except dwelling quarters, at reasonable hours, in the performance of his or her duty in the enforcement of this chapter; and to demand access to plant and other articles requiring inspection;

(9) To make requirements, not contrary to law, governing the entry from other states and territories, the District of Columbia, and any foreign country, of any plant, plant part, or other article that he or she, for purposes of plant pest control, may designate, and to search, seize, inspect, or hold for inspection those items at the state borders, ports of entry, or point of destination; and

(10) To revoke or suspend any certificate or license issued by his or her department, and to require the immediate surrender of certificates or licenses revoked or suspended.

History of Section. (P.L. 1955, ch. 3547, § 3; G.L. 1956, § 2-16-3.)