227-C:8-h Financial Responsibility. –
I. The provisions of this chapter shall not require that the owner or lessee of the land on which the unmarked human burials or human remains are found bear the cost of the excavation, removal, analysis, or disposition if the discovery is the result of vandalism, erosion, or noncommercial land-altering activity.
II. The owner or lessee of the land on which unmarked human burials or human remains are found shall bear the cost of the excavation, removal, analysis, and disposition if the discovery is the result of a privately-financed commercial land-altering activity, including the construction of speculative housing.
III. If the discovery is the result of a state-funded land-altering activity, the department providing the funding shall bear the cost of excavation, removal, analysis, disposition, and land restoration and shall be authorized to use project funds for those purposes.
IV. If unmarked human burials or human remains are discovered by a professional archaeologist as a result of survey or long-term systematic research, the sponsoring institution shall bear the cost of the excavation, removal, analysis, and disposition of human remains and of land restoration.
V. If unmarked human burials or human remains are discovered as a result of vandalism, erosion, or noncommercial land-altering activity, or as a result of survey or long-term systematic research funded by the division of historical resources, the division of historical resources shall bear the cost of the excavation, removal, analysis, and disposition of human remains and of land restoration.