In order to effect the protection, reclamation or irrigation of the land and other property in the district, the board of directors is authorized and empowered to clean out, straighten, widen, alter, deepen or change the course or terminus of any ditch, drain, sewer, river, water course, pond, lake, creek or natural stream in or out of said district; to fill up any abandoned or altered ditch, drain, sewer, river, watercourse, pond, lake, creek or natural stream, and to concentrate, divert or divide the flow of water in or out of said district; to construct and maintain main and lateral ditches, sewers, canals, levees, dikes, dams, retardation dams, irrigation dams, sluices, revetments, reservoirs, holding basins, floodways, pumping stations and siphons and any other works and improvements deemed necessary to construct, preserve, operate or maintain the works in or out of said district; to construct or enlarge or cause to be constructed or enlarged any and all bridges that may be needed in or out of said district; to construct or elevate roadways and streets; to construct any and all of said works and improvements across, through or over any public highway, canal, railroad right-of-way, track, grade, fill or cut, in or out of said district; to remove or change the location of any fence, building, railroad, canal or other improvements in or out of said district; and shall have the right to hold, encumber, control, to acquire by donation, purchase or condemnation, to construct, own, lease, use and sell real and personal property, and to acquire, construct, own, lease, use or sell any easement, riparian right, railroad right-of-way, canal, cemetery, sluice, reservoir, holding basin, mill dam, water power, wharf, holding basin or franchise in or out of said district for right-of-way, or for any necessary purpose, or to acquire, own, lease, use and sell any real estate for material to be used in constructing and maintaining said works and improvement, to replat or subdivide land, open new roads, streets and alleys, or change the course of any existing one; provided, however, that said board of directors shall not exercise any of said powers specified herein without first having in the court having jurisdiction a full and complete petition stating in detail the acts intended to be done, and upon the filing of said petition, a notice shall be published in the county or counties in said district, as hereinbefore provided, setting forth the nature of the relief prayed for, which notice shall be published for not less than thirty (30) days, and shall specify a date on which said petition will be heard by said court, and in the event a protest is filed, said court shall hear all parties interested and make its decree thereon and said decree may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, as is provided in our statutes relating to civil procedure. The decree of said Court on said hearing shall, either grant in whole or in part, or deny the relief prayed for.

Laws 1923-24, HB 47, c. 139, § 16; Amended by Laws 1927, HB 62, c. 70, § 8.