CHAPTER 749
AN ACT TO AMEND SUBCHAPTER II, CHAPTER 39, TITLE 7, DELAWARE CODE, RELATING TO SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS BY CHANGING AMOUNT OF APPROPRIATIONS AND USE OF APPROPRIATED MONEY IN KENT COUNTY AND TO REFLECT CHANGES IN GOVERNMENTAL UNITS AFFECTED BY STATE REORGANIZATION.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (three-fourths of all the members elected to each House thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. Subchapter II, Chapter 39, Title 7, is hereby repealed in its entirety and a new "Subchapter II" is substituted in lieu thereof, to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER II. STATE AND COUNTY APPROPRIATIONS
TO DISTRICTS
§ 3921. Annual appropriations to Soil and Water Conservation Division of Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
The General Assembly shall annually appropriate:
(a) to the Soil and Water Conservation Division for use in New Castle County, a sum not in excess of $30,000;
(b) to the Soil and Water Conservation Division for use in Kent County, a sum not in excess of $30,000;
(c) to the Soil and Water Conservation for use in Sussex County, a sum not in excess of $22,500.
§ 3922. Appropriations by the several county governments
The government of each county shall annually appropriate to the Soil and Water Conservation Division a sum equal to the annual appropriation to the Division by the General Assembly, for use in the respective counties, pursuant to Section 3921 of this Title.
§ 3923. Use of appropriated monies in Kent and New Castle Counties
The monies appropriated pursuant to Section 3921 of this Title shall be used by the Soil and Water Conservation Division to pay or assist in paying all costs, including personnel required for the planning, construction and installation of tax ditches, public group ditches, highway ditches and resource conservation projects in Kent and New Castle Counties, which tax ditches shall be organized under the provisions of Chapter 41 of this Title, and which 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 this State or by Kent or New Castle Counties, and which Highway ditches shall be ditches maintained by the public on State or county-owned easements or rights-of-way adjacent to the roads of Kent or New Castle Counties, and which resource conservation projects shall be defined in applications submitted to the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture for Watershed Planning or Resource Conservation and Development assistance. The monies appropriated shall be paid from time to time by the State Treasurer and the Governments of Kent and New Castle Counties to the Soil and Water Conservation Division, or to the Kent Soil and Water Conservation District, or to the New Castle Soil and Water Conservation District, 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 Division and upon certification by the Division that such payments are proper and for the purposes authorized by this section.
§ 3924. Use of appropriated monies in Sussex County; priorities
(a) The appropriations made pursuant to Section 3921 of this Title shall be used by the Soil and Water Conservation Division each fiscal year in Sussex County, first, as required for
those legal tax ditches of Sussex County 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 Sussex County within the limits of watershed areas which are now, or may be established, in this State pursuant to the provisions of 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 Sussex County, when landowners or other non-Federal sources contribute specified sums of money for use on said tax ditches, the Board of Supervisors of the Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District shall make certification to the Soil and Water Conservation Division 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 Division shall pay, from the State funds appropriated for this purpose, to the Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District, the sum of 50 cents for every dollar so certified.
() After approval of the certification from the Board of Supervisors the Division shall notify the Government of Sussex County of such action, and the Government shall then pay to the Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District the sum of 50 cents for every dollar so certified under subsection (b) above.
(a) The sums of money paid to the Board of Supervisors of the Sussex Soil and Water Conservation District by the Division and by the government of Sussex County 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.
(b) Any of the money appropriated pursuant to Section 3921 of this Title which is not needed for the work on tax ditches for which landowners or other non-Federal sources have contributed specified sums of money, may be used by the Division as the local share or as a contribution toward the local share to supplement Federal funds made available to pay the costs of planning, construction and maintenance of tax ditches of Sussex County located within the limits of any watershed area or areas established under the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act and as determined under such Act; and such monies may also be used by the Soil and Water Conservation Division to pay or assist in paying 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 watersheds.
§ 3925. Transfer of funds prohibited
Funds appropriated for used by a particular District in a particular county shall only be used by that District in that county.
Approved July 23, 1970.