§36-3-5a. Easement and right-of-way; description of property; exception for certain public utility facilities and mineral leases.

(a) Any deed or instrument that initially grants or reserves an easement or right-of-way shall describe the easement or right-of-way by any of the following:

(1) Metes and bounds;

(2) Specification of centerline: Provided, That any deed or instrument, executed on or after September 1, 2013, that initially grants or reserves an easement or right-of-way using the centerline method must also include the width;

(3) Station and offset; or

(4) Reference to an attached drawing or plat which may not require a survey or instrument based on the use of the global positioning system which may not require a survey.

(b) Oil and gas, gas storage and mineral leases shall not be required to describe the easement, but shall describe the land on which the easement or right-of-way will be situate by source of title or reference to a tax map and parcel, recorded deed, recorded lease, plat or survey sufficient to reasonably identify and locate the property on which the easement or right-of-way is situate: Provided, That the easement or right-of-way is not invalid because of the failure of the easement or right-of-way to meet the requirements of this subsection or subsection (a) above.

(c) This section does not apply to the construction of a service extension from a main distribution system of a public utility when the service extension is located entirely on, below or above the property to which the utility service is to be provided.

(d) The clerk of the county commission of any county in which an easement or right-of-way is recorded pursuant to this section may only accept for recordation a document that complies with this section and that otherwise complies with the requirements of article one, chapter thirty-nine of this code, without need for a survey or certification under section two-a, article one, chapter thirty-nine of this code.