Washington · statute · Wash. Rev. Code ch. 89.30 · 270 active provisions
Reclamation districts including an area of not less than one million acres of land may be created and maintained in this state, as herein provided, for the reclamation and improvement of arid and semiarid lands situated in such districts, and for the generation and/or sale of hydroelectric energy: PROVIDED, That no app…
Such reclamation districts may include all or part of the territory of any county and may combine the territory in two or more counties, in which any of the lands to be reclaimed and improved are situated, or in which hydroelectric energy may be generated in connection with project works.
Such reclamation districts may be organized or maintained for any or all the following general purposes:(1) The construction or purchase and the operation and maintenance of dams, power and pumping works, transmission power lines, reservoirs, pipe lines, and other works or parts of same for the irrigation of lands with…
Whenever fifty, or a majority of the holders of title to, or of evidence of title to, lands susceptible of irrigation in each of the several counties in which lands coming within the proposed district are located, desire to organize an irrigation [reclamation] district for any, or all, of the purposes mentioned in RCW…
Said petition shall describe the lands proposed to be irrigated in township and ranges and in case of smaller bodies of land, in legal subdivisions or fractions thereof, shall give the name of the county in which said respective irrigable lands are situated, and shall state all the possible sources of water supply from…
State, granted, school or other public lands of the state of Washington may be included in such districts, and may be included in any general improvement district or divisional district authorized herein within the reclamation district and subjected to special assessments for general improvement or divisional district…
All leases, contracts, or other form of holding any interest in any state or public land shall be treated as the private property of the lessee or owner of the contractual or possessory interest; PROVIDED, That nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect the title of the state or other public ownership, nor sh…
Lands of the federal government may be included within such districts; and such lands may be included in any general improvement or divisional district authorized herein, in the manner and subject to the conditions specified in the statutes of the United States.
Lands held by private persons under possessory rights from the federal government may be included within the operation of the district, and as soon as such lands are held under title of private ownership, the owner thereof shall be entitled to receive his or her proportion of water as in case of other landowners upon p…
Persons signing said petition shall state following their respective names, in a place provided in said petition for that purpose, the legal description of the lands owned by them and the estimated irrigable acreage contained in the same: PROVIDED, That the petitioners shall be prima facie deemed to be the owners of la…
The ownership of land of any of the petitioners may be shown by the county general tax roll of the county in which such land is situated, last equalized prior to the time of the filing of said petition with the county board. Any item on said assessment roll may be proved by a certificate of the county officer having th…
The petition for organization of such reclamation district shall consist of any number of separate instruments of uniform similarity, numbered consecutively. For convenience, lands represented on said instruments may be grouped separately according to the county in which said lands are situated. No petitioner shall hav…
If it shall appear that said petition or any part thereof does not contain the matters and things required by the statute, said county board shall make an order specifying the deficiency and shall return said petition or the part thereof found to be deficient to the persons filing the same.
In the event that more than one petition for the organization of a reclamation district covering any of the same territory, is filed with the same board or with different boards of county commissioners prior to the date of the issuance of the order fixing the time and place for a hearing on one of said petitions as her…
If and when said county board finds that the petition is sufficient it shall enter an order to that effect and shall fix a time and place for a hearing on said petition which said time shall be not less than thirty days nor more than ninety days from the date of said order and shall direct the clerk of the board to pub…
Said notice shall be published once a week for at least two weeks (three issues) before the time when the hearing on said petition is to be held.
Said notice shall state that a petition has been filed with said county board for the purpose of creating a reclamation district under the provisions of this chapter and may be inspected during office hours by any interested person, shall specify the boundaries of the district proposed in the petition, shall mention th…
Said clerk shall also mail a copy of said notice to each member of the commission hereinafter provided for, at least two weeks before the day of said hearing.
Upon the giving of notice of hearing on the petition by the clerk of the county board aforesaid, there is hereby authorized and created a commission composed of the chair of the board of county commissioners of each of the counties in which any of the lands to be included in the proposed reclamation district are situat…
The state director of ecology shall be ex officio chair of said commission, and the clerk of the county board of the county in which the petition is filed, shall be ex officio clerk of said commission. A majority of the members of said commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction or exercise of any of its p…
The clerk of the commission shall not be entitled to vote on matters coming before it, except in case of a tie vote of the members thereof, in which event said clerk shall cast the deciding vote.
Said commission is hereby given full authority to receive evidence, to make independent investigation, to determine and establish the boundaries of the district, to adjourn its meeting from time to time and place to place, and to do any and all things necessary or incidental to the determination of the petition and the…
The period of such adjournments, however, shall not exceed ninety days in all and in case of lack of a quorum, one or more members of the commission may adjourn to a day certain and notify the absent members of the day to which said hearing was adjourned.
Except as otherwise herein provided the necessary expenses of the commission and of the members thereof in performing the duties and functions of said commission shall be borne by the respective counties concerned in proportion to the taxable value of the acreage of each included in the proposed reclamation district an…
The hearing on said petition shall be held at the office of the county board of the county where the petition is filed or at such other convenient place as said county board shall designate.