Title 51, Waters, Water Resources, Water Districts, Drainage, and Flood Control

All hearings hereinbefore provided to be heard before the chancellor may be heard before a special commissioner who may be appointed by the chancellor, who shall have full authority to make all findings of law and of fact, and whose findings shall be reduced to writing and report…

As a part of the cost of the organization and conduct of a drainage district, the chancellor may tax his own traveling and hotel expenses in deciding all hearings provided for in this chapter, when such hearings are had before the chancellor in vacation. Such traveling expenses s…

If upon the hearing provided for in Sections 51-29-5 through 51-29-9 a petition is presented to the chancery court, or the chancellor in vacation, signed by a majority of the landholders owning one third of the land, or by one third of the landholders owning a majority of the lan…

In case assessment of benefits of a drainage district organized and operating under the provisions of this chapter is set up on the assessment roll of such drainage district by government survey subdivisions and any such land is thereafter conveyed so that the separate ownership …

Should an appeal not be perfected within fifteen days after the decision of the board of drainage commissioners, or upon the final decision of the courts upon appeal, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the drainage district to immediately certify a copy of said order to the tax…

Subdistricts may be formed under this chapter in the following manner: When one third of the landowners owning a majority of the acreage or a majority of the landowners owning a third of the acreage or real property within a proposed subdistrict, composed of lands wholly within a…

Whenever an appeal is allowed to be prosecuted under this chapter, the same shall be taken within the time fixed by this chapter. If the appeal be from an order of the board of supervisors, same shall be perfected in the same manner as an appeal from orders of the board of superv…

Any drainage district operating under the provisions of this chapter, having as its purpose and object a comprehensive and general plan to control overflow and surplus water of rivers and their tributaries, is hereby given the power, in addition to the foregoing powers given by t…

Whenever such districts include within their boundaries land already included in an existing drainage district, such land in the existing district shall remain liable for benefits already assessed or that may thereafter be assessed by such existing district, and shall also be lia…

Such district shall have the right to acquire and own in fee simple, within the confines of such district, all necessary rights of way for floodways, by-passes, ditches, canals, levees, and other necessary work or improvements, by purchase or condemnation as now provided by law w…

Such districts may acquire such rights of way through existing drainage districts, after obtaining consent of an existing district and upon such terms as the existing district may impose, but when the works or improvements of an existing district are so acquired, the district acq…

When lands in an existing district, and which have been assessed for benefits, are acquired for rights of way by such districts for canals, ditches, levees, floodways, by-passes, or other necessary drainage purposes, assessments already levied or that may be levied against such l…

Nothing contained in Sections 51-29-119 through 51-29-129 shall be construed to permit the enlargement of any prescriptive rights now or hereafter existing or acquired, nor permit the diversion of water from one watershed or basin to another watershed or basin. Nor shall said sec…

The order of the chancery court, or chancellor in vacation, establishing such drainage districts shall have the force of a judgment. Any owner of real property within the district may appeal from said judgment to the supreme court within twenty days after said order has been made…

If ten per cent of the landowners owning lands adjoining or adjacent to any existing district operating under the provisions of this chapter shall petition the chancery court to extend the boundaries of any such existing district, describing generally the region which it is inten…

When such reports are filed, the clerk of the chancery court shall thereupon give notice for two weeks by two insertions in some newspaper published in the county or counties in which the land proposed to be included in and added to the existing drainage district is located, call…

If the majority of the landowners owning one third of the acreage of the lands or one third of the landowners owning a majority in acreage of the lands proposed to be added to the existing drainage district shall petition the chancery court of any county in which any part of the …

When the boundaries of the existing drainage district are extended so as to embrace and include additional territory and land, said district shall have all the rights, powers, and privileges so far as said land is concerned as said district had of the lands originally embraced an…

Nothing contained in Sections 51-29-131 through 51-29-143 shall be construed as preventing the inclusion, in the boundaries of the drainage district to be extended, of any lands embraced in any other existing drainage district. Any such lands shall be and remain liable to the dra…

Separate accounts shall be kept by the treasurer and depositories for such extended districts, so as to show receipts and disbursements from and on account of the land embraced in the district as originally formed, and also from the land embraced in the territory added to such di…

All the provisions of this chapter shall apply to the organization and operation of extended existing drainage districts, as authorized by the provisions of Sections 51-29-131 through 51-29-143, in so far as the same are or can be made applicable.

The board of commissioners of any drainage district of the State of Mississippi organized and existing under and by virtue of this chapter, which embraces lands in three or more counties in the State of Mississippi and which supplies an outlet for the water of three or more drain…

Upon the adoption of such resolution, the said board of commissioners of said drainage district may file its petition in the chancery court of any one of the counties in which it embraces land, requesting said court, or the chancellor thereof in vacation, to set a date for a hear…

At said hearing, the court or chancellor in vacation, as the case may be, shall hear the written protests and objections against the proposed consolidation of said districts, if any be filed prior to the date set for said hearing; and unless, prior to said date of hearing, a majo…

When the chancery court or chancellor in vacation has established such district, he shall appoint three (3) owners of real property within the district to act as commissioners; and such persons, when so appointed, and their successors in office shall constitute, and are hereby de…

In the event of such consolidation as provided in Sections 51-29-145 through 51-29-157, the court or chancellor in vacation immediately shall proceed to name said consolidated district, and to appoint to govern the same a board of commissioners to consist of five members, three o…

When said board of commissioners of said consolidated district have been appointed and have qualified as required by law, the several boards of commissioners of the said separate drainage districts shall cease to exist, and their power and authority shall terminate. They shall be…

Nothing in Sections 51-29-145 through 51-29-157, nor in any proceedings had under the provisions thereof, shall have the effect of impairing, releasing, or abrogating the lien of the principal of, or interest on, any outstanding bonds, notes, or other obligations of any of the sa…

Said consolidated drainage district shall have the same authority, power and jurisdiction over the combined territory of said separate districts, and over the integrated system of drainage thereof, as if it were a district organized and existing under and by virtue of this chapte…

The board of commissioners of any drainage district heretofore and hereafter organized under the provision of this chapter are hereby authorized and empowered, in their discretion, to lease lands owned by the drainage district for oil, gas, and mineral exploration and development…

The owner or owners of any tract or tracts of land situated within the boundaries of any drainage district that embraces land in more than one county of the state and was organized under this chapter may, in event the United States government, any agency or instrumentality thereo…

At said hearing, if said owner or owners shall have then paid over to the chancery clerk the amount set out in said petition and if all of the holders of not less than 95% in amount of the outstanding original indebtedness of the district and all of the holders of outstanding ref…

On the rendition of said order the chancery clerk shall pay over to the board of commissioners of said district the amount so paid in to him, which amount shall be held in a special fund to be deposited with the depository of said district under all protections now provided by la…

The commissioners appointed as aforesaid shall hold their offices, one (1) for two (2) years, one (1) for four (4) years, and one (1) for six (6) years, from the date of their appointment and until their successors are appointed and qualified. On the expiration of their terms of …

The said commissioners may adopt a common seal of the drainage district and alter the same at pleasure. They may, from time to time, make such bylaws, rules, and regulations, and alter and change the same as they may deem proper, not inconsistent with this chapter and the laws of…

Such plans and specifications shall show not merely the location, width, and depth of the ditches, but also the work to be done in removing obstructions from water courses, the building of pumping stations, dams, flumes, floodgates, fences to protect the district, and such levees…

If for any cause the improvements shall not be made, said costs shall be charged on the real property in the district, including railroads, if any, and shall be raised and paid by assessments in the manner hereinafter described; or, in the event said assessments are not made, or …

In any proceeding heretofore or hereafter had for the establishment of a ditch or drain or the doing of any other thing deemed necessary, when an engineer has been appointed and has made complete surveys and reports thereof, and for any reason the improvement has been abandoned a…

As soon as said board of commissioners shall have formed its plan and shall ascertain the cost of improvement, it shall file the same with the clerk of the board of supervisors. Said plans shall be accompanied by a map showing the location of all the main and lateral ditches, and…

Said commissioners shall proceed to assess the land within the district and shall inscribe in a book the description of each tract of land, the benefit to accrue to each tract by reason of such improvement, and shall enter such assessments of benefits opposite the description, to…

The words “real property”, whenever used in this chapter, shall have the same meaning as when used in the law providing for state and county revenues, and shall embrace all railroads within the district. The word “ditch,” as used in this chapter, shall be held to include branch o…

Upon the filing of such assessment, the chancery court, or the chancellor in vacation, shall enter an order directing the clerk of the chancery court to give notice by publication for two (2) weeks by two (2) insertions in some newspaper published and having a general circulation…

At the time designated in said notice the court, or chancellor in vacation, shall consider said complaint or objection and enter its or his findings thereon, either confirming such assessment or increasing or diminishing the same; and its or his findings shall be final and have t…

Any property owner may accept the assessment of damages in his favor made by the commissioners, or acquiesce in their failure to assess damages in his favor, and shall be construed to have done so unless he gives to said commissioners, within thirty days after the assessment is f…

The drainage commissioners may employ an attorney to assist in the formation and administration of the drainage district, and to represent the district in all matters of a legal nature, at a fixed or agreed compensation, subject to the confirmation of the chancery court or chance…

In lieu of the method provided in Sections 51-29-29 through 51-29-35 for acquiring land and making compensation for damages, the drainage commissioners may adopt the following method for acquiring lands and making compensation for damages, to wit: The commissioners may, at any ti…