TITLE 42

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE — WATER RIGHTS AND RECLAMATION

CHAPTER 29

DRAINAGE DISTRICTS

42-2939.  General powers of district. All drainage districts organized under the provisions of this chapter shall have the right of eminent domain, with power by and through their boards of commissioners to cause to be condemned and appropriated private property for the use of said corporation in the construction and maintenance of a system of drainage, and to make just compensations therefor, to employ engineers, and such other assistants as may be necessary; to survey, plan, locate and estimate the cost of the works necessary for the reclamation of the lands of the district; to acquire and to hold by purchase, condemnation or other legal means, the right of way and the right to take material for the construction of all works necessary for the accomplishment of that object; to build and maintain drains, canals, sluices, bulkheads, water gates, levees and embankments; to establish and maintain pumping plants and to construct and maintain and keep in repair all works requisite and necessary to the end that the lands in the district may be reclaimed.

For the purpose of the drainage of any such district, the whole or any portion of any natural water course, or river, which drains such district, may be diked, improved, enlarged, widened, deepened or straightened, or any natural obstruction may be removed therefrom.

Said board of drainage commissioners shall have power to provide by contract for the performance and payment of all or any portion of the work requisite or necessary for the drainage of the lands included within the limits of such district, or to enter into any contract whereby all or any portion of the cost of such work shall be paid, assumed or undertaken by such district, and to do all things requisite or necessary for the drainage of said lands.

Work for the drainage of said lands may be performed either entirely or partly within the limits of such district, or of the county in which such district is located, or entirely or partly within or without the boundaries of any other county, state, territory or foreign country: provided, that the property of private corporations may be subjected to the same rights of eminent domain as that of private individuals: provided further, that the said board of commissioners shall have power to acquire by purchase all the real property necessary to make the improvements herein provided for.

History:

[(42-2939) 1913, ch. 16, sec. 33, p. 58; reen. C.L. 168:36; C.S., sec. 4530; I.C.A., sec. 41-2539.]