260.276.  Nuisance abatement activities, department may conduct — costs, civil action authorized, exception — resource recovery or nuisance abatement bids on contract, who may bid — content — nonprofits may be eligible for cleanup reimbursement, when. — 1.  The department of natural resources shall, subject to appropriation, conduct resource recovery or nuisance abatement activities designed to reduce the volume of scrap tires or alleviate any nuisance condition at any site if the owner or operator of such a site fails to comply with the rules and regulations authorized under section 260.270, or if the site is in continued violation of such rules and regulations.  The department shall give first priority to cleanup of sites owned by persons who present satisfactory evidence that such persons were not responsible for the creation of the nuisance conditions or any violations of section 260.270 at the site.

  2.  The department may ask the attorney general to initiate a civil action to recover from any persons responsible the reasonable and necessary costs incurred by the department for its nuisance abatement activities and its legal expenses related to the abatement; except that in no case shall the attorney general seek to recover cleanup costs from the owner of the property if such person presents satisfactory evidence that such person was not responsible for the creation of the nuisance condition or any violation of section 260.270 at the site.

  3.  The department shall allow any person, firm, corporation, state agency, charitable, fraternal, or other nonprofit organization to bid on a contract for each resource recovery or nuisance abatement activity authorized under this section.  The contract shall specify the cost per tire for delivery to a registered scrap tire processing or end-user facility, and the cost per tire for processing.  The recipient or recipients of any contract shall not be compensated by the department for the cost of delivery and the cost of processing for each tire until such tire is delivered to a registered scrap tire processing or end-user facility and the contract recipient has provided proof of delivery to the department.

  4.  Subject to the availability of funds, any charitable, fraternal, or other nonprofit organization which voluntarily cleans up land or water resources may be eligible for reimbursement for the disposal costs of scrap tires collected in the course of such cleanup under the rules and regulations of the department.  Also, subject to the availability of funds, any municipal or county government which voluntarily cleans up scrap tires from illegal dumps, not incidental to normal governmental activities or resulting from tire collection events, may also be eligible for reimbursement for the disposal costs of scrap tires collected in the course of such cleanup under the rules and regulations of the department.