(REPRINTED WITH ADOPTED AMENDMENTS) SECOND REPRINT
Senate Bill No. 397-Senator McGinness
May 15, 1997
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Referred to Committee on Natural Resources
SUMMARY--Revises provisions governing liens upon lands entitled to receive water from irrigation districts. (BDR 48-1383)
FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: No.
EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.
AN ACT relating to public water; revising the provisions governing liens upon lands entitled to receive water from an irrigation district; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. NRS 539.513 is hereby amended to read as follows:
539.5131. [For the purpose of defraying] To defray the organization and current expense of the district, and of the care, operation, maintenance, management, repair, and necessary current improvement or replacement of existing works and property, including salaries and wages of officers and employees and other proper incidental expenditures, the board may:
(a) Fix rates of tolls or charges, and provide for the collection thereof by the district treasurer as operation and maintenance, or some like designation; or
(b) Levy assessments therefor, or for a portion thereof, collecting the balance as tolls or charges.
[In this relation, provision may be made by the board] The board may provide for the fixing, levying and collection of a minimum, flat or stated operation and maintenance assessment, toll or charge per acre, whether water is used or not, and a further operation and maintenance toll or charge for water used in excess of the amount delivered for the minimum charge , [;] or the board may adopt other reasonable methods of fixing and collecting the operation and maintenance charges.
2. Assessments, tolls and charges may be collected in advance, and the assessment and such tolls and charges may be based upon an estimate of the operation and maintenance revenue required for the current or ensuing year, to be adjusted as near as may be from year to year.
3. Water service may be refused and water delivery may be shut off whenever there is a default in the payment of operation and maintenance, but all other legal remedies [shall] must also be available for the enforcement of the debt.
4. The tolls and charges [shall] must be collected by the treasurer and deposited in the general fund or operation and maintenance fund, and he shall account therefor and disburse the same as provided in this chapter.
5. The assessments, tolls or charges fixed by the board of directors for the payment of operation and maintenance expenses, as provided in this chapter, [shall become] are a lien upon all lands entitled to receive water from the irrigation district system of works, as of the date fixed by the board of directors for the payment of the [same,] assessments, tolls or charges, whether water is delivered to such lands or not.
6. If the owner of land upon which a lien is imposed pursuant to subsection 5 conveys the right to use the water but does not sell the land upon which the lien is imposed, the lien remains in effect until:
(a) The proposed change in the beneficial use of the water is approved by the state engineer pursuant to NRS 533.370; or
(b) The new owner of the right to use the water enters into a written agreement with the irrigation district for the payment of the assessments, tolls or charges required pursuant to this section.