Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 414

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 39, TITLE 7, DELAWARE CODE, RELATING TO SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS BY PROVIDING FOR ANNUAL STATE AND COUNTY APPROPRIATIONS TO THE DELAWARE SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION COMMISSION.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:

Section 1. Sections 3901 through 3910, Chapter 39, Title 7, Delaware Code, are designated as Sub-Chapter 1, Chapter 39 with the following caption:

SUBCHAPTER I. SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION

COMMISSION AND DISTRICTS

Section 2. Chapter 39, Title 7, Delaware Code, is amended by adding thereto a new sub-chapter to read:

SUBCHAPTER II. STATE AND COUNTY APPROPRIATIONS

TO DISTRICTS

§ 3921. Annual appropriations to Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission

The General Assembly shall annually appropriate:

(a) to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission for use in New Castle County, a sum not in excess of $30,000;

(b) to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission, for use in Kent County, a sum not in excess of $10,000;

(c) to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission, for use in Sussex County, a sum not in excess of $22,500.

§ 3922. Appropriations by the several Levy Courts

The Levy Courts of the 3 counties shall annually appropriate to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission

a sum equal to the annual appropriation to the Commission by the General Assembly, for use in the respective counties, pursuant to the Section 3921 of this sub-chapter.

§ 3923. Use of appropriated moneys in New Castle County

The moneys appropriated pursuant to this subchapter shall be used by the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission to pay or help pay all costs, including personnel, required for the planning, construction and installation of tax ditches, public group ditches and highway ditches in New Castle County, which said tax ditches shall be organized under the provisions of Title 7, Chapter 41, Delaware Code, and which said public group ditches shall be ditches providing water management and drainage for groups of landowners and for landowners and portions of state highways and for which necessary permanent easements or rights-of-way for construction and maintenance operations shall have been acquired by the State of Delaware or by New Castle County, and which said highway ditches shall be ditches maintained by the public on State or County owned easements or rights-of-way adjacent to the roads of New Castle County. Said moneys shall be paid from time to time by the State Treasurer and the Levy Court of New Castle County to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission, or to the New Castle Soil and Water Conservation Districts, for these purposes, or directly to contractors and suppliers furnishing work, labor, services, and materials for such projects or to landowners for rights-of-way or easements, or shall be paid or otherwise made available to other State agencies for work, labor, services, and materials for certain portions of such projects, as shall be determined by the Commission, and upon certification by the Commission that such payments are proper and for the purposes authorized by this section of this Act.

§ 3924. Use of appropriated moneys in Kent and Sussex Counties; priorities

(a) The appropriations made pursuant to this subchapter shall be used by the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission each fiscal year in Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be): first, as required for those legal tax ditches of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) when landowners or other non-Federal sources contribute specified sums of money for use on said tax ditches in accordance with subsections (b), (c) and (d) of this section; and second, when Federal funds are available in lieu of landowner funds to help pay the cost of construction and maintenance of tax ditches of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) within the limits of watershed areas which are now, or may be established in this State pursuant to the provisions of the Act of the Congress of the United States known as the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act (Public Law 566, 83rd Congress, 68 Stat 666) with subsequent amendments thereto.

(b) For work on the tax ditches of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) when landowners or other non-Federal sources contribute specified sums of money for use on said tax ditches, the Board of Supervisors of the Kent or Sussex County Soil and Water Conservation Districts (as the case may be) shall make certification to the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission that the Board of Supervisors has on hand from landowners, or from any other sources, a specified sum of money for use on said tax ditches. Upon approval of the certification, the Commission shall pay, from the State funds appropriated for this purpose, to the Kent or Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District, (as the case may be) the sum of fifty cents for every dollar so certified.

(c) After approval of the certification from the Board of Supervisors the Commission shall notify the Levy Court of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) of such action, and the appropriate Levy Court shall then pay to the Kent or Sussex Soil and Water Conservation Districts (as the case may be) the sum of fifty cents for every dollar so certified under (b) above.

(d) The sums of money paid from time to time to the Board of Supervisors of the Kent or Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District (as the case may be) by the Commission and by the Levy Court of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) shall be used by the Board of Supervisors for construction and maintenance of only those tax ditches for which appropriate matching funds from other sources have been made available.

(e) Any of the money appropriated pursuant to this subchapter which is not needed for work on the tax ditches for which landowners or other non-Federal sources have contributed specified sums of money, may be used by the Commission as the local share or as a contribution toward the local share to supplement Federal funds made available to pay the costs of construction and maintenance of tax ditches of Kent or Sussex County (as the case may be) located within the limits of any watershed area or areas established under the aforesaid Act of Congress and as determined under the Act; and such moneys may also be used by the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation Commission to pay or help pay, through the medium of contracts or agreements, for work, labor, services or materials used for construction operations supplementing or protecting tax ditch installations in the water sheds.

§ 3925. Transfer of funds prohibited

Funds appropriated for use by a particular District in a particular county shall only be used by that District in that County.

Section 3. The provisions of this Act shall become effective on July 1, 1966.

Approved June 27, 1966.