2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 85. Water Use › Chapter 8. Drainage Districts › Part 3. Organization and Operation › 85-8-342. Apportionment of costs

85-8-342. Apportionment of costs.
(1) In apportioning the costs and expenses mentioned in 85-8-341(1)(d), the following classes of property, persons, corporations, and municipalities shall be assessed:
(a) all lands which are swampy, bogged, or waterlogged and will be relieved and improved by virtue of the construction of the proposed drainage system;
(b) all lands which are becoming or are liable to become swampy, bogged, or waterlogged and which the construction of the proposed drainage system will prevent from being thus affected;
(c) all lands from which surface or seepage waters will enter or can be conducted into the proposed drainage system;
(d) all lands and improvements thereto upon which or through which surface or seepage water will be prevented from flowing or can be prevented from flowing by virtue of the construction of the proposed drainage system;
(e) all lands or improvements which will sustain any direct benefit of any kind or character whatsoever;
(f) all railways, whether operated by steam, electricity, or otherwise, whose right-of-way or roadbed will be benefited or can be benefited by reason of the construction of the proposed drainage system or levee project;
(g) all public utilities whose easements or other facilities within the district will receive benefit from the proposed work;
(h) all owners of irrigation ditches or canals included within said district or from which water seeps, drains, or wastes to, upon, or through lands included within the district;
(i) the county or counties which the proposed drainage system traverses or which will be benefited as to public health, convenience, welfare, or improvement of any public highway;
(j) all incorporated cities or towns and lands included within townsites and subdivisions, in whole or in part, directly benefited by reason of the construction of the proposed drainage system.
(2) In apportioning the costs and expenses mentioned in 85-8-341(1)(d), the following principles shall be regarded:
(a) All of the above classes of lands, improvements, railways, public utilities, irrigation ditches, counties, cities, towns, townsites, and subdivisions shall be liable to assessment for the construction of the proposed drainage system in such proportions as may seem just and equitable.
(b) The benefits to accrue from the construction of the proposed drainage system to a railway, county, incorporated city or town, and lands included within a platted townsite or subdivision being of a different character than those to accrue to agricultural lands shall be considered in apportioning the assessment, and also the damages and inconvenience caused by seepage and waste waters from irrigation ditches and from the higher lands shall be considered in apportioning the assessment to them.
(c) In the case of the construction of levees or other flood control facilities, lands and improvements which are located or constructed at an elevation which is greater than the elevation of the design flood level which said levees or other flood control facilities are designed to protect against shall not be assessed for the payment of any part of the cost of constructing the levees or other flood control facilities, nor shall such lands or improvements be assessed for the payment of any part of the cost for repairs thereto, maintenance thereof, or the incidental expenses attached to the establishment of such drainage district.
(d) The assessment against each tract, lot, easement, town, city, county, irrigation ditch, railroad, public utility, individual, or corporation owner thereof which will be benefited by the proposed work or which, in any manner, contributes to the swamped, seeped, bogged, or waterlogged condition of any land within said district and the proportionate share of cost of construction of the proposed drainage system which each of them should bear shall be shown in tabular form, the columns of which shall be headed as follows: Column 1--Owners of property assessed; 2--Description of property assessed; 3--Number of acres assessed; 4--Amount of benefits assessed; 5--Number of acres taken for right-of-way; 6--Value of property taken; 7--Damages; 8--Assessment for costs; which shall be known as the assessment roll. Where property, persons, or corporations, public or private, contribute to the damaged condition of the lands to be reclaimed, it shall not be necessary to assess in such assessment roll the benefits to be derived by or accruing to them.
History: En. Sec. 43, Ch. 129, L. 1921; re-en. Sec. 7307, R.C.M. 1921; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 169, L. 1929; re-en. Sec. 7307, R.C.M. 1935; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 409, L. 1973; R.C.M. 1947, 89-2330(part).