The directors, having duly qualified, shall organize a board, elect a president from their number and appoint a secretary. The board shall have power, and it shall be their duty to adopt a seal, manage and conduct the affairs and business of the district, make and execute all necessary contracts, employ such agents, attorneys, officers and employes [employees] as may be required and prescribe their duties and establish equitable rules and regulations for the distribution and use of water among the owners of said land.
The board may make investigations, and base thereon such representations and assurances to the secretary of the interior as may be requisite under the said act of congress of August 11, 1916. The board shall generally perform all such acts as may be necessary to fully carry out the purposes of this act. Said board may also enter into any obligation or contract with the United States for the construction, operation and maintenance of the necessary work for the delivery and distribution of water therefrom, or for drainage of district lands, or for the assumption, as principal or guarantor, of indebtedness to the United States on account of district lands or for the temporary rental of water under the provisions of this act, and of the federal reclamation law and all acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, and the rules and regulations established thereunder; or the board may contract with the United States for water supply under any act of congress providing for or permitting such contract, and in case contract has been, or may hereafter be made with the United States, as herein provided, bonds of the district may be deposited with the United States, at ninety-five percent of their par value, to the amount to be paid by the district to the United States under any such contract, the interest on said bonds to be provided for by assessment and levy as in the case of other bonds of the district, and regularly paid to the United States to be applied as provided in such contract, and if bonds of the district are not so deposited it shall be the duty of the board of directors to include, as a part of any levy or assessment now provided for by law, an amount sufficient to meet each year all payments accruing under the terms of any such contract; and the board may accept, on behalf of the district, appointment of the district as fiscal agent of the United States, or authorization of the district by the United States to make collections of moneys for or on behalf of the United States in connection with any federal reclamation project, whereupon the district shall be authorized so to act and to assume the duties and liabilities incident to such action, and the said board shall have full power to do any and all things required by the federal statutes now or hereafter enacted and regulations now or that may hereafter be established by any department of the federal government in regard thereto.
Districts cooperating with the United States may rent or lease water to lands of entrymen or municipalities in the neighborhood of the districts in pursuance of contract with the United States.
The said board shall have the power, in addition to the means to supply water to said district, to construct, acquire or purchase any and all canals, ditches, reservoirs, sites, water, water rights, rights-of-way or other property necessary for the use of the district. In case of the purchase of any property by said district, the bonds of the district hereinafter provided for may be used at their par value in payment, without previous offer of such bonds for sale.
All waters distributed shall be apportioned to each landowner or entryman pro rata to the lands assessed under this act within such district. The board of directors shall have the power to lease or rent the use of water or electrical energy, or contract for the delivery thereof to occupants of other lands or municipalities within or without the said district at such prices and such terms as they deem best, but the rental shall not be less or on terms more favorable than those fixed for district lands. Provided no vested or prescriptive rights to the use of such water shall attach to said land by virtue of such lease or such rental. And, provided further, no rules shall be prescribed or regulations enforced which shall interfere with the vested rights of any water user or with the exercise of such rights of any such water user.
Any landowner or entrymen in said district may, with the consent of the board of directors, assign the right to the whole or any portion of the water so apportioned to him for any one year where practicable, to any other bona fide landowner; provided, such owner or entrymen shall have paid all amounts due on assessments upon all such lands.
Provided, further, that all water, the right to use of which is acquired by the district under any contract with the United States, shall be distributed and apportioned by the district in accordance with the acts of congress and rules and regulations of the secretary of the interior, and the provisions of said contract in relation thereto.
The rules and regulations provided in this section, as soon as adopted or furnished by the secretary of the interior, as the case may be, shall be printed in convenient form for distribution in the district. Such rules and regulations, among other things, may provide that no water shall be delivered from the irrigation system of the district for the irrigation of any land while the taxes or tolls due thereon, or from the owner thereof, for district purposes, levied or imposed under the provisions of this act are in arrears for more than twelve months, but nothing herein shall be construed as preventing said irrigation district from collecting any assessment by any other lawful method.
History: Laws 1919, ch. 20, § 13; 1921, ch. 39, § 2; C.S. 1929, § 73-114; 1941 Comp., § 77-2214; 1953 Comp., § 75-23-14.
ANNOTATIONS
Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.
Compiler’s notes. — For the meaning of the term “this act”, see compiler’s notes to 73-10-1 NMSA 1978.
Cross references. — For the provisions of the Act of August 11, 1916 see 43 U.S.C. §§ 621 to 630, “An Act to Promote the Reclamation of Arid Lands.”
For definitions of “irrigation district” and “board of directors,” see 73-11-54 NMSA 1978.
For the appointment of a director by bondholders, see 73-13-7 NMSA 1978.
Tax levied to cover expenses estimated to accrue in year. — Directors of irrigation district may properly include in their estimates and the resulting tax levy the cost of operation and maintenance for the ensuing year, though demand for payment thereof might not be made during the ensuing year. Sperry v. Elephant Butte Irrigation Dist., 1928-NMSC-043, 33 N.M. 482, 270 P. 889.
Separate assessment for supplemented water users authorized. — An irrigation district is authorized to construct wells in order to provide supplemental water supplies to certain water users within the district and such district may separately assess the users of such supplemental water, apart from other irrigation charges. 1972 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 72-26.
Board authorized to recover construction costs through water lease. — The provision of this section that the board of directors may lease or rent the use of water at such prices and such terms as they deem best gives ample authority to the board to enter into contracts for the rental or lease of water supplies made available by the construction of water works pursuant to this same section and for the recovery in the rental price of the initial construction cost of the project, spread over a reasonable period of time, together with the reimbursement of cost of operation and maintenance. 1972 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 72-26.
Law reviews. — For article, “An Institutional Framework for a Water Market in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District,” see 49 Nat. Resources J. 219 (2009).
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 45 Am. Jur. 2d Irrigation § 62.
94 C.J.S. Waters § 321.