(a) If the permittee, project sponsor, principal investigator or other professional personnel, or investigative firm or other professional firm fails to comply with any of the rules of the commission or any of the terms of the specific permit involved, or fails to properly conduct or complete the project, or fails to act in the best interest of the state, or fails to meet terms and conditions of defaulted permits, the commission may cancel the permit and notify the permittee of such cancellation by certified letter, return receipt requested, mailed to the last address furnished to the commission by the permit applicant. When determined to be appropriate and upon notification of cancellation, the permittee, project sponsor, principal investigator and other professional personnel, and investigative firm or other professional firm shall, in the case of ongoing projects, cease work immediately, remove all personnel and equipment, and vacate the area or site within 24 hours. A permit that has been canceled can be reinstated by the commission if good cause is shown within 30 days.
(b) A principal investigator and investigative firm or other professional firm shall not proceed with an investigation without applying for and receiving an appropriate permit by the commission, or without having been officially authorized by the commission to proceed prior to issuance of an emergency permit. Failure to meet this requirement may result in the principal investigator, investigative firm, or professional firm being censured and denied issuance of permits for a six-month period. The commission will send a letter of reprimand to the principal investigator and/or investigative firm for each application offense. More than one permit application offense in a one-year period may result in permit censuring for a period of six months for each offense. If the commission determines that more than one permit application offense has occurred in one year, it may direct the staff to censure the principal investigator or other professional personnel, investigative firm, or professional firm in question. The censured parties will then be ineligible to be issued a permit for a period of six months for each offense.
(c) Project sponsors and permittees shall not encourage principal investigators, or investigative firms or other professional firms to perform investigations on public lands in the State of Texas without a properly issued permit. Such investigations proceeding with the knowledge of the project sponsor and/or permittee constitute a violation of the Antiquities Code of Texas. Such actions may result in the denial of a permit and prevent authorization for a development project to proceed relative to jurisdiction under the Antiquities Code of Texas. The commission may also require that the investigations performed without a permit be performed again under a properly issued permit.
(d) The rules and standards that must be followed in relationship to the curation of artifacts recovered under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas can be found under Chapter 29 of this title (relating to Management and Care of Artifacts and Collections).

Source Note: The provisions of this §26.18 adopted to be effective May 20, 2013, 38 TexReg 2980