Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                        CHAPTER 445-H.F.No. 1950 
           An act relating to watershed districts; setting the 
          limit on certain borrowing authority; amending 
          Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, sections 112.43, 
          subdivision 1; and 112.65, subdivision 2. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, section 
112.43, subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  The managers, to carry out this chapter, 
may: 
    (1) Make necessary surveys or use other reliable surveys 
and data and develop projects to accomplish the purposes for 
which the district is organized and may initiate, undertake, and 
construct projects not required to be instituted by a petition 
under section 112.47. 
    (2) Cooperate or contract with any state or subdivision of 
a state or federal agency or private or public corporation or 
cooperative association. 
    (3) Construct, clean, repair, alter, abandon, consolidate, 
reclaim, or change the course or terminus of any public ditch, 
drain, sewer, river, watercourse, natural or artificial, within 
the district. 
    (4) Acquire, operate, construct, and maintain dams, dikes, 
reservoirs, water supply systems, and appurtenant works. 
    (5) Regulate, conserve, and control the use of water within 
the district. 
    (6) Acquire by gift, purchase, or the right of eminent 
domain necessary real and personal property.  The district may 
acquire property outside the district where necessary for a 
water supply system. 
    (7) Contract for or purchase insurance the managers find 
necessary for the protection of the district. 
    (8) Establish and maintain devices for acquiring and 
recording hydrological data. 
    (9) Enter into contracts of construction authorized by this 
chapter. 
    (10) Enter lands inside or outside the district to make 
surveys and investigations to accomplish the purposes of the 
district.  The district is liable for actual damages resulting 
from entry. 
    (11) Take over when directed by the joint county ditch 
authority or county board all joint county or county drainage 
systems within the district, together with the right to repair, 
maintain, and improve them.  When a joint county or county 
drainage system is taken over in whole or in part, it becomes 
part of the works of the district to the extent taken over. 
    (12) Provide for sanitation and public health and regulate 
the use of streams, ditches, or watercourses to dispose of waste 
and prevent pollution. 
    (13) Borrow funds from:  (a) any agency of the federal 
government; (b) any state agency; (c) any county in which the 
district is located in whole or in part; or (d) a financial 
institution authorized under chapter 47 to do business in this 
state.  A county board may lend the amount requested by a 
district.  No district may have more than a total of 
$50,000 $200,000 in loans from counties and financial 
institutions under this clause outstanding at any time. 
    (14) Prepare a flood plain map of the lands of the district 
that are in the flood plain of lakes and watercourses.  The map 
must be made available to the counties and local municipalities 
for inclusion in flood plain ordinances.  It must conform to 
state rules setting standards for designation of flood plain 
areas. 
    (15) Prepare an open space and greenbelt map of the lands 
of the district that should be preserved and included in the 
open space and greenbelt land areas of the district.  The map 
must be made available to the counties and local municipalities 
for inclusion in flood plain and shoreland ordinances. 
    (16) Appropriate necessary funds to provide for membership 
in a state association of watershed districts whose purpose is 
to improve watershed governmental operations. 
    (17) Control the use and development of land in the flood 
plain and the greenbelt and open space areas of the district.  
To do this, the managers may adopt, amend, or repeal rules to 
control encroachments, the changing of land contours, the 
placement of fill and structures, the placement of encumbrances 
or obstructions and require the landowner to remove fill, 
structures, encumbrances, or other obstructions and restore the 
previously existing land contours and vegetation.  The managers 
may by rule provide a procedure by which the district can do the 
work required and assess its cost against the affected property 
as a special assessment.  The rules apply only in the absence of 
county or municipal ordinances regulating the items set forth in 
this clause.  The rules must be adopted in accordance with 
subdivision 1c. 
     Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, section 
112.65, subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 2.  [CONSTRUCTION OR IMPROVEMENT.] Construction of 
new drainage systems or improvements of existing drainage 
systems in the district must be initiated by filing a petition 
with the managers.  In all proceedings for the construction or 
improvement of existing drainage systems in the district, the 
managers shall conform to section 112.49 chapter 106A. 
    Approved April 4, 1988