Kansas Statutes 24-1206. Sufficient petition transmitted to chief engineer; investigation, report and approval or disapproval; approval required, when; transmittal of approval to secretary of state and to chairperson of steering committee
Terms Used In Kansas Statutes 24-1206
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Minor: means any person defined by Kan. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- watershed: shall mean all of the area within the state draining toward a selected point on any watercourse, stream, lake or depression;
(i) "subwatershed" shall mean a division of the district as nearly equal in size to other divisions of the district as feasible and including as nearly as practicable one or more tributaries to the main stream which drains from the district;
(j) "qualified voter" shall mean any qualified elector of the district and any person 18 years of age or over owning land within the district, although not a resident therein;
(k) "landowner" shall mean the record owner of the fee in any real estate in the district or the fee in the surface rights of any real estate in the district, but the owners of an oil and gas lease, mineral rights or interest, easements or mortgages as such shall not be considered landowners, and school districts, cemetery associations and municipal corporations shall not be considered landowners;
(l) "steering committee" shall be the group of qualified voters, not less than the number to be chosen for the board of directors, who shall serve as the governing body of the proposed watershed district until the first board of directors is elected;
(m) "general plan" shall mean a preliminary engineering report describing the characteristics of the district, the nature and methods of dealing with the soil and water problems within the district, and the projects proposed to be undertaken by the district. See Kansas Statutes 24-1202
(a) If the secretary of state finds the petition to be sufficient as to form and the number and qualifications of the petitioners, the secretary of state shall prepare a certified copy of the petition and transmit it to the chief engineer within five days after the secretary of state’s determination of sufficiency.
(b) Upon receipt of a certified copy of a petition transmitted pursuant to subsection (a) or a certified copy of a resolution transmitted pursuant to Kan. Stat. Ann. § 24-1203a, the chief engineer shall institute an investigation of each proposed district, its territory and purposes and, within 90 days after receipt of such copy shall transmit a written report of the chief engineer’s findings on the petition or resolution, together with the chief engineer’s written approval or disapproval of the petition or resolution, to the secretary of state and the acting chairperson of the steering committee named in the petition or resolution.
(c) The chief engineer shall approve the petition or resolution if the chief engineer finds and discloses by the chief engineer’s report that:
(1) The lands proposed to be included in each district comprise substantially a watershed or two or more adjoining watersheds;
(2) each proposed district would not include lands in any existing watershed district;
(3) the statement of purposes contained in the petition or resolution conforms with the intents and purposes of this act;
(4) the lands within each proposed district or part thereof, are subject to erosion, floodwater or sediment damage or would be benefited by the construction of works for the conservation, development, utilization or disposal of water;
(5) the boundary of each proposed district is defined, as far as practicable, so as to include all quarter-quarter sections of which more than 1/2 of each is within the watershed;
(6) the downstream limit of each proposed district is established with due regard to the location of highways and railroads and the location and character of existing works of improvement, the boundaries of any organized levee, drainage, irrigation and watershed districts, and the physical characteristics of and the probable relative effect of the operation of the proposed district upon any flood plane area common to both the stream or watercourse and any other stream or watercourse; and
(7) the map attached to the petition or resolution and the description of lands proposed to be included in each district are adequate and correct, except the chief engineer, in the chief engineer’s report, may make any minor corrections with respect to the map or the description of lands proposed to be included in the district to make such map and description of lands conform to the map previously prepared in consultation with the chief engineer and such corrections shall thereupon become a part of the petition or resolution and be deemed effective without a recirculation of the corrected petition among the landowners or amendment of the resolution.
(d) If the chief engineer approves the petition or resolution, the chief engineer shall transmit a certified copy of the chief engineer’s report to the secretary of state and to the chairperson of the steering committee of the district.