2006 Utah Code - 17A-2-1413 — District powers -- Powers of board of trustees -- Other provisions applicable.

     17A-2-1413.   District powers -- Powers of board of trustees -- Other provisions applicable.
     (1) (a) Each water conservancy district established under this part:
     (i) shall have perpetual succession; and
     (ii) except as provided in Subsection (1)(b), may exercise the power of eminent domain, as provided by law, to take any property necessary to exercise powers granted to the district.
     (b) Notwithstanding Subsection (1)(a)(ii), a water conservancy district may not:
     (i) exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire title to or beneficial use of vested water rights for transmountain diversion; and
     (ii) carry or transport water in transmountain diversion, the title to which has been acquired by a municipality by virtue of eminent domain proceedings.
     (2) The board of trustees may, on behalf of the district:
     (a) take by appropriation, grant, purchase, bequest, devise, or lease, and hold and enjoy water, waterworks, water rights, sources of water supply, and any real and personal property within or without the district necessary or convenient to exercise fully its powers;
     (b) sell, lease, encumber, alienate, or otherwise dispose of water, waterworks, water rights, and sources of water supply for any beneficial use within or without the district, and fix rates and terms for the sale, lease, or other disposal of water;
     (c) acquire, construct, operate, control, and use any works or facilities within or without the district necessary or convenient to exercise its powers;
     (d) construct, establish, or maintain works or facilities:
     (i) across or along any public street or highway;
     (ii) in, upon, or over any vacant public lands which are now, or may become, the property of this state in accordance with Title 53C, School and Institutional Trust Lands Management Act, and Title 65A, State Lands, except that any such action upon school or institutional trust lands may only be undertaken with the consent of the director of the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, acting pursuant to Sections 53C-1-102 and 53C-1-303; or
     (iii) across any streams of water or watercourses;
     (e) contract with any agency of the United States, person, or corporation, public or private, for the construction, preservation, operation, or maintenance of tunnels, drains, pipelines, reservoirs, regulating basins, diversion canals and works, dams, power plants, and any necessary incidental works;
     (f) acquire perpetual rights to the use of water from the works referred to in Subsection (2)(e) and to sell perpetual rights to the use of water from those works to persons and corporations, public and private;
     (g) list in separate ownership the lands within the district which are susceptible of irrigation from district sources and to make an allotment of water to all those lands, which allotment of water may not exceed the maximum amount that the board determines could be beneficially used on the lands;
     (h) levy assessments, as provided for by this part, against lands within the district to which water is allotted on the basis of:
     (i) a uniform district-wide value per acre-foot of irrigation water; or
     (ii) a uniform unit-wide value per acre-foot of irrigation water provided that the board divides the district into units and fixes a different value per acre-foot of water in the respective

units;
     (i) fix rates for the sale, lease, or other disposal of water, other than irrigation water, at rates that are equitable, although not necessarily equal or uniform, for like classes of service;
     (j) adopt and modify plans and specifications for the works for which the district was organized;
     (k) investigate and promote water development;
     (l) appropriate and otherwise acquire water and water rights within or without the state;
     (m) develop, store, and transport water;
     (n) acquire stock in canal companies, water companies, and water users' associations;
     (o) make and adopt plans for and to acquire, construct, operate, and maintain dams, reservoirs, canals, conduits, pipelines, tunnels, power plants, and any works, facilities, improvements, and property necessary or convenient for those purposes;
     (p) generate, distribute, or sell electric power from hydroelectric power plants owned, operated, licensed, or leased by the district if, as determined by the board, the electric power plant was acquired or constructed as an incidental and not the primary purpose of a project for the conservation, development, storage, transportation, or distribution of water;
     (q) invest any surplus money in the district treasury pursuant to Title 51, Chapter 7, State Money Management Act;
     (r) refund bonded indebtedness incurred by the district pursuant to rules prescribed by the board;
     (s) borrow money and to issue bonds or other evidence of indebtedness;
     (t) construct works and improvements on land not subject to acquisition by condemnation held by the district for a term of not less than 50 years under lease, easement, or otherwise and to issue bonds to pay the costs for which bonds may be issued as in this part;
     (u) acquire, construct, operate, or maintain works for the irrigation of land;
     (v) sell water and water services to individual customers and to charge sufficient rates for the water and services supplied; however, no sale of water for domestic or culinary use shall be made to a customer located within the limits of any incorporated municipality without the consent of the municipality, except as provided by Subsection 17A-2-1439(7);
     (w) make and collect fees for customer connections to the works of the district and for permitting and supervising the making of the connections;
     (x) use the proceeds of connection charges for any lawful corporate purpose, including the construction or acquisition of facilities, payment of principal of and interest on bonds, and the creation of a reserve for such purposes;
     (y) own property for its corporate purposes within the boundaries of incorporated municipalities; and
     (z) adopt a fiscal year, which may end June 30 or December 31.
     (3) (a) The provisions of Title 17B, Chapter 2, Part 4, Board of Trustees, except Section 17B-2-402, apply to each water conservancy district to the same extent as if the water conservancy district were a local district under Title 17B, Chapter 2, Local Districts.
     (b) (i) If a change in the expiration date of the term of a board of trustees member is necessary to comply with the requirements of Subsection 17B-2-403(1), the term of each board member whose term expires on a day other than the first Monday in January shall be extended to the first Monday in January after the normal expiration date next following the special district election date under Section 17A-1-305.

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     (ii) If a change in the length of the term of a board of trustees member is necessary to comply with the requirements of Subsection 17B-2-403(2), the change may not take effect until the expiration of the term of the member whose term length is to be changed.

Amended by Chapter 9, 2001 General Session