574                              Laws of Maryland                       Ch. 245

body of water in this State. [The said county commissioners, act-
ing as district council, shall provide the necessary engineering agency
for the preparation of plans, specification, contracts and supervi-
sion.]

167B(a).

The owners of seventy-five percentum (75%) of any property or
seventy-five percentum (75%) of the owners of any property may
present a written petition to the county commissioners of any one
or more counties wherein the property lies requesting the creation
of a district. The petition shall describe the boundaries of the
property proposed to be created as a district. Upon receiving a
petition the county commissioners shall refer the petition to the
[section of shore erosion control of the] Department of [Tidewater
Fisheries] Natural Resources. The [section] Department shall re-
view the petition and submit its report to the county commissioners
containing its recommendation on the feasibility and need for a
district. The report shall include the area to be included within
the district, plans for erosion control and estimated costs for the
erosion control projects recommended.

Sec. 7 SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That Sections 756, 757,
and 758A of Article 66C of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1957
Edition, 1967 Replacement Volume and 1969 Cumulative Supplement)
title "Natural Resources," subtitle "Shore Erosion Control" be and
they are hereby repealed in their entirety, and that in their place,
new Sections 756, 756A, 757, 758A and 758B be enacted and added
to the same subtitle, all to read as follows:

Shore Erosion Control

756.

The Department of Natural Resources shall have the following
powers and duties:

(a)    To develop and implement a program to educate the public
on all phases of shore and bank erosion, its causes, its effects, the
locations where erosion is a problem, and steps to be taken to control
erosion.

(b)    To review petitions for formation of shore erosion control
districts presented to any of the counties or Baltimore City and to
report to the counties or Baltimore City as provided by Section
167B of Article 25 of this Code.

(c)    To provide technical assistance to individual property own-
ers, municipalities and counties having specific shore and bank ero-
sion problems.

(d)    To design, or cause to be designed, shore erosion control
structures, including vegetative cover, in shore erosion control dis-
tricts.

(e)    To enter into agreements with persons, corporations, munic-
ipalities or counties for construction of shore erosion control struc-
tures.