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A.  Riparian owners and their lessees of property on navigable rivers, lakes, or streams within the limits of any deep water port commission of this state or, in the absence of any such commission, within a municipality having a population in excess of five thousand inhabitants, shall have the right to erect and maintain on the batture or banks owned or leased by them and in the bed of the navigable river, lake, or stream adjacent to or adjoining such batture or banks, such wharves, buildings, or improvements as may be required for the purposes of commerce, navigation, or other public purposes.  However, where such owners first have obtained the consent of the governing authority of the deep-water port commission, which consent each deep-water port commission is hereby authorized to grant, or of the municipality, as the case may be, to erect such wharves, buildings, or improvements, and same are erected in conformity to plans and specifications which have been approved by such governing authorities, those governing authorities may expropriate said wharves, buildings, or improvements whenever said improvements or the riparian front shall be required for public purposes, and the owners shall be entitled to claim compensation to the full extent of their loss, but where such consent and approval is not obtained, the owners shall be entitled to be paid compensation therefor to the full extent of their loss or required to remove such wharves, buildings, or improvements at their own expense, in the discretion of the governing authority of the deep-water port commission or of the municipality.  In all cases, such wharves, buildings, or improvements shall remain subject to the administration and control of the governing authorities with respect to their maintenance and to the fees and charges to be exacted for their use by the public.  

B.  Nothing herein shall deprive the levee boards of their authority with respect to levees in their respective districts or their right to appropriate, without compensation, such wharves, buildings, or improvements.  

Added by Acts 1975, No. 141, §1.  Amended by Acts 1981, No. 2, §1, eff. May 18, 1981.