4846

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 909

Article - Natural Resources

Section 8-803(c), (d), and (e), respectively to be
Section 8-803 (e), (f), and (g), respectively
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1974 Volume and 1981 Supplement)

BY adding

Article - Natural Resources
Section 8-803(c) and (d)
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1974 Volume and 1981 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
read(s) as follows:

Article 25 - County Commissioners

52.

(a) The boards of county commissioners of the several
counties in the State of Maryland shall have jurisdiction,
power, and authority to establish public drainage
associations in their respective counties, and to locate and
establish ditches, drains, or canals, and to cause to be
constructed, straightened, widened or deepened any ditch,
drain or watercourse for the purpose of [draining wet,
swampy or overflowed lands or lands subject to overflow;]
ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING WATERSHED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS, and
it is hereby declared that such drainage shall be considered
a public benefit and conducive to the public health,
convenience and welfare.

53.

Whenever a petition signed by not less than one third
of the landowners or by the owners of not less than one
third of the land in a [contiguous body of wet, swampy or
overflowed land] WATERSHED is filed with the clerk of the
board of county commissioners of the county in which all or
any part of such body of land is located, setting forth that
such body of land, described in such a way as to convey an
intelligent idea of its location, [is subject to overflow or
too wet for cultivation,] IN NEED OF DRAINAGE FOR OPTIMAL
CROP PRODUCTION and that the public benefit or utility, or
the public health, convenience or welfare would be promoted
by draining or ditching the same, or by changing or
improving the natural watercourses, and asking for the
establishment of a public drainage association for such
purposes, it shall be the duty of the board of county
commissioners forthwith to appoint a board of drainage
viewers, to be composed of three or more judicious and
impartial citizens, residing in the vicinity of the [said