Title XI, NATURAL RESOURCES (Ch. 455 - 485)

1. If the board finds the work under any contract has been completed and accepted, the board shall compute the balance due, and if there are no liens on file against such balance, it shall enter of record an order directing the auditor to draw a warrant in favor of the contractor…

In case any contractor abandons or fails to proceed diligently and properly with the work before completion, or in case the contractor fails to complete the work in the time and according to the terms of the contract, the board shall make written demand on the contractor and the …

Unless the contractor or the surety on the contractor’s bond shall appear and in good faith proceed to comply with the demand, and resume work under the contract within the time fixed, the board shall proceed to let contracts for the unfinished work in the same manner as original…

When a levee or drainage district shall have been established by the board and it shall become necessary or desirable that the levee, ditch, drain, or improvement shall be located and constructed within the limits of any public highway, it shall be so built as not materially to i…

The board shall have power to establish public highways along and upon any levee or embankment along any such ditch or drain, but when so established the same shall be worked and maintained as other highways and so as not to obstruct or impair the levee, ditch, or drain. [S13, §1…

1. When a levee, ditch, drain, or change of any natural watercourse crosses a public highway, necessitating moving or building or rebuilding any secondary road bridge upon or ditch or drain crossing the road, the board of supervisors shall move, build, or rebuild the bridge, ditc…

Whenever the board of supervisors shall have established any levee, or drainage district, or change of any natural watercourse and the levee, ditch, drain, or watercourse as surveyed and located crosses the right-of-way of any railroad company, the county auditor shall immediatel…

1. The engineer shall examine the lands described in the petition and any other lands which would be benefited by said improvement or necessary in carrying out the purposes of the petition. 2. The engineer shall locate and survey such ditches, drains, levees, settling basins, pum…

Upon receiving the notice provided in section 468.109 , such railroad company shall construct the improvement across its right-of-way according to the plans and specifications prepared by the engineer for said district, and build or rebuild the necessary culvert or bridge and com…

The cost of building, rebuilding, constructing, reconstructing, changing, or repairing, as the case may be, any culvert or bridge, when such improvement is located at the place of the natural waterway or place provided by the railroad company for the flow of the water, shall be b…

If a railroad company does not comply with a notice provided in section 468.109 , the board shall provide for the construction of the improvement under the supervision of the engineer in charge of the improvement. The railroad company shall be liable for the cost of the construct…

The cost of constructing the improvement across the right-of-way of such company, not including the cost of building or rebuilding and constructing or reconstructing any necessary culvert or bridge, when such improvement is located at the place of the natural waterway or place pr…

It shall be the duty of any steam or electric railway company to furnish the contractor unrestricted passage across its right-of-way, telegraph, telephone, and signal lines for the contractor’s machines and equipment, whenever recommended by the engineer and approved by the board…

The owner or operator of a public utility, whether operated publicly or privately other than steam and electric railways shall afford the contractor of any drainage project under this subchapter, parts 1 through 5 , unrestricted passage for the contractor’s machines and equipment…

If the owner or operator of the utility fails to afford such passage within fifteen days after written notice from the drainage engineer so to do, the contractor, under the supervision of the engineer, may proceed to do the necessary work to afford such passage and to place said …

The work necessary to afford such passage shall be deemed to be covered by and included in the contract with the district under which the contractor is operating, and if the work is done by the owner or operator of such utility the reasonable expense thereof shall be paid out of …

1. If a railroad or other utility has abandoned the use of its right-of-way for the purpose it was originally acquired or has sold its right-of-way to a person who will use the right-of-way for a purpose other than for which it was originally acquired, the prior right or privileg…

1. After the establishment of a levee or drainage district, if the board becomes convinced that additional lands contiguous to the district, and without regard to county boundaries, are benefited by the improvement or that the same are then receiving benefit or will be benefited …

1. The engineer shall make full written report to the county auditor, setting forth: a. The starting point, route, and terminus of each ditch, drain, and levee and the character and location of all other improvements. b. A plat and profile, showing all ditches, drains, levees, se…

If the report recommends the annexation of the lands or any portion of them, the board shall consider the report, plats, and profiles and if satisfied that any of the lands are materially benefited by the district and that annexation is feasible, expedient, and for the public goo…

After annexation is made the board may levy upon the annexed lands an assessment sufficient to equal the assessments for benefit originally paid by the lands of equal classification if the finding by the board as provided by section 468.119 was that the lands should have been inc…

In cases where proceedings have been taken for the establishment of a levee or drainage district and an engineer has been appointed who has made a survey, return, and plat thereof and for any reason the improvement has been abandoned and the proceedings dismissed, and afterward p…

When proceedings have been instituted for the establishment of a drainage district or for any change or repair thereof, or the change of a natural watercourse, and the establishment thereof has failed for any reason either before or after the improvement is completed, the board s…

If any levee or drainage district or improvement established either by legal proceedings or by private parties shall be insufficient to properly drain all of the lands tributary thereto, the board upon petition as for the establishment of an original levee or drainage district, s…

When such district as contemplated in section 468.124 and the new improvement therein shall include the whole or any part of the former improvement, the commissioners, for classification of lands for assessment of benefits and apportionment of costs and expenses of such new impro…

1. When any levee or drainage district has been established and the improvement constructed, the improvement shall be at all times under the supervision of the board of supervisors except as otherwise provided for control and management by a board of trustees and the board shall …

1. The costs of the repair or improvements provided for in section 468.126 shall be paid for out of the funds of the levee or drainage district. If the funds on hand are not sufficient to pay such expenses, the board within two years shall levy an assessment sufficient to pay the…

Levee and drainage districts are empowered to construct impounding areas and other flood and erosion control devices to protect lands of the district and drainage structures and may provide ways for access to improvements for the operation or protection thereof, where the cost is…

Levee and drainage districts may realize income from incidental uses of their improvements and rights-of-way which are not injurious to same or incompatible with the purposes of the district. Revenues derived therefrom may be expended for operating, maintenance or construction co…

1. Upon the filing of the report of the engineer recommending the establishment of the levee or drainage district, the board shall at its first regular, adjourned, or special meeting examine and consider the same, and, if the plan is not approved the board may employ the same eng…

Any board, as defined in section 468.3 , may by contract permit any city to discharge adequately treated sewage into drainage ditches. The contract shall fix the rental, make provision for termination, and shall provide that no nuisance shall be created. [C58, 62, 66, 71, 73, §39…

When an assessment for improvements as provided in section 468.126 , exceeds twenty-five percent of the original assessment and the original or subsequent assessment or report of the benefit commission as confirmed did not designate separately the amount each tract should pay for…

When two or more drainage districts outlet into the same ditch, drain, or natural watercourse and the board determines that it is necessary to clean out, deepen, enlarge, extend, or straighten said ditch, drain, or natural watercourse in order to expeditiously carry off the combi…

1. For the purpose of ascertaining the proportionate benefits, the board shall appoint commissioners having the qualifications of benefit commissioners, one of whom shall be an engineer. The commissioners who are appointed shall not be residents of any of the districts affected, …

When said commissioners are appointed, the board shall, by proper order, fix the time when the commissioners shall report their findings, but a report filed within thirty days of the time so fixed shall be deemed a compliance with said order. On the filing of said report, the boa…

1. The commissioners shall file with the board a detailed report of their findings. The board shall review the report and may, by proper order, increase or decrease the amount which shall be charged to each district. After the final order of the board has been made, the board sha…

If the amount finally charged against a district does not exceed twenty-five percent of the original cost of the improvement in the district, the board shall proceed to levy the amount against all lands, highways, and railway rights-of-way and property within the district, in acc…

If the amount finally charged against a district exceeds twenty-five percent of the original cost of the improvement, the board may order a reclassification as provided for the original classification of a district and upon the final adoption of the new classification and apporti…

The board shall cause to be removed from the ditches, drains, and laterals of any district any obstructions which interfere with the flow of the water, including trees, hedges, or shrubbery and the roots thereof, and may cause any tile drain so obstructed to be relaid in concrete…

When it becomes necessary to destroy any trees or hedges outside the right-of-way of any ditch, lateral, or drain in order to prevent obstruction by the roots thereof, if the board and the owners of such trees or hedges cannot agree upon the damage for the destruction thereof, th…

When any plan and report of the engineer has been approved by the board, such approval shall be entered of record in its proceedings as a tentative plan only for the establishment of said improvement. Thereupon it shall enter an order fixing a date for the hearing upon the petiti…

The owner of any premises assessed for the payment of the costs of location and construction of any ditch, drain, or watercourse as in this subchapter, parts 1 through 5 , provided, shall have the right to use the same as an outlet for lateral drains from the premises. The board …

The board of supervisors of any county shall have jurisdiction to establish subdrainage districts of lands included within a district extending into two or more counties when the lands to compose such subdistricts lie wholly within such county, and to make improvements therein, r…

The owners of lands may provide by mutual agreement in writing duly signed, acknowledged, and filed with the auditor for combined drainage of their lands by the location and establishment of a drainage district for such purposes and the construction of drains, ditches, settling b…

Such agreements shall contain the following: 1. A description of the lands by congressional divisions, metes and bounds, or other intelligible manner, together with the names of the owners of all said lands. 2. The location of the drains and ditches to be constructed, describing …

When such agreement is filed, the auditor shall record it in the drainage record. The board shall at a regular, special, or adjourned session thereafter locate and establish a drainage district and locate the ditches, drains, settling basins, and watercourses thereof as provided …