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

(1) On or before the fifteenth day of July of each year, the board of directors of the district shall prepare and file with the clerk of the board of supervisors of each member county, and with the clerk of each member municipality, at least two (2) copies of a budget of estimate…

It is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination that the overflow and inundation of sixteenth section lands or in lieu lands shall not constitute legal waste of such lands. The district shall pay a reasonable rental for the use of such lands to be overflowed, and t…

Nothing in this article shall be construed to violate any provisions of the federal or state constitutions, and all acts done under this article shall be done in such manner as will conform thereto, whether herein expressly provided or not. Where any procedure hereunder may be he…

(1) At any time more than fifteen (15) years after the commencement date of any residential lease from the district, the leaseholder shall have the option to renew and extend the lease for a new sixty-year term by giving the district notice of his exercise of this option to renew…

(1) Any holder of a lease that is not a residential lease subject to Section 51-15-163 shall have the right, exclusive of all other persons, to renew the lease at fair market rental value at any time prior to expiration of the lease. (2) Other than the right of a lessee to renew …

Any municipality or county which is within the territorial limits of the district may advance funds to the district to pay the preliminary expenses of the district, including engineer’s reports, organization, or administration expenses, on such terms of repayment as the governing…

There is hereby created the Yellow Creek Watershed Authority composed of the geographic boundaries of the counties of Alcorn, Prentiss, and Tishomingo in the State of Mississippi which shall be governed by a board of directors consisting of nine (9) members. Three (3) members sha…

The Yellow Creek Watershed Authority is hereby specifically authorized and empowered to contract with and to be contracted with by the Tennessee Valley Authority and any other agency or agencies of the federal government or of any state or subdivision thereof which may be of assi…

Each of the counties in which the said Yellow Creek Watershed is located is hereby authorized and empowered to contribute any amount or amounts which the board of supervisors thereof shall deem advisable, acting in their sole discretion, to be paid from the general county fund of…

This chapter shall be considered supplemental and additional to any and all other laws and confers sufficient authority in and of itself for the purposes set forth herein.

(1) There is hereby created the Tallahatchie River Authority composed of the geographic boundaries of the following counties that the Tallahatchie River or Little Tallahatchie River traverse or border in the State of Mississippi, subject to the board of supervisors of a county vo…

The Tallahatchie River Authority is specifically authorized and empowered to contract with and to be contracted with by the Tennessee Valley Authority and any other agency or agencies of the federal government or of any state or subdivision thereof which may be of assistance in c…

Each of the counties in which the Tallahatchie River Authority is located is authorized and empowered to contribute any amount or amounts which the board of supervisors thereof deems advisable, acting in their sole discretion, to be paid from the general county fund of the respec…

(1) The governor, on behalf of this state, is hereby authorized to execute a compact in substantially the following form with the State of Alabama; and the legislature hereby signifies in advance its approval and ratification of such compact, which compact is as follows: Article …

The admission of the State of Tennessee into the Tombigbee-Tennessee Waterway Development Compact is hereby approved, and the State of Tennessee shall become a party to the compact upon its execution by the governor of the State of Tennessee. The secretary of state of Mississippi…

The admission of the Commonwealth of Kentucky into the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Compact is hereby approved, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky shall become a party to the compact upon its execution by the governor of the commonwealth. The secretary of state is hereb…

The admission of the State of Florida into the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Compact is hereby ratified, approved, and agreed to by the State of Mississippi, and said State of Florida shall become a party to said compact upon the execution of the same by the governor o…

This chapter shall govern the future operation of all drainage districts heretofore organized or now in process of organization under the provisions of Chapter 195 of the Laws of 1912 and amendments thereto, and such other districts as may hereafter be organized under the provisi…

The commissioners, engineers, and contractors, with their teams and outfits engaged in drainage work, shall have the right to pass over all the lands of others to and from the district, being liable to the owner for any damage done thereto. Any owner who shall prevent such passag…

Any district which has heretofore been organized, including swamp land districts, or which may hereafter be organized under other statutes, may become a district under the terms of this chapter as follows: If a third of the landowners owning a majority of the acreage or a majorit…

This chapter shall be liberally construed to promote the ditching, drainage, and reclamation of wet, swampy, and overflowed lands. The collection of assessments hereunder shall not be defeated by reason of any omission, imperfection, or defect in the organization of any district …

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…