§ 38:1614 — Corporate status and powers of district

Any drainage district shall constitute a body corporate in law, with all the powers of a corporation. It shall have perpetual existence, incur debts and contract obligations in accordance with law, sue and be sued, have a corporate seal, and do and perform any and all acts in its corporate capacity and in its corporate name necessary and proper for the carrying out of the purposes and objects for which the drainage district was created.
The drainage district may expropriate property for the purpose of acquiring sites for pumping stations or acquiring land for any other purpose that it may find necessary to carry out the purposes for which it was created. The drainage district may acquire machinery, maintain pumping plants or any machinery whatever that may be found necessary for the purpose of draining or reclaiming any of the lands embraced within the drainage district, and shall own the right of way for levees, canals and ditches, and all sites which are acquired either by donation, purchase or expropriation, in full ownership.
The drainage districts may contract with other drainage districts, sub-drainage districts, gravity drainage districts, gravity sub-drainage districts, and municipal corporations, to undertake and complete, as a joint enterprise, works which are of mutual benefit, but the proportion which each drainage district, sub-drainage district, gravity drainage district, gravity sub-drainage district, or municipality, shall contribute shall be determined in advance. The work so jointly undertaken shall belong to the drainage district, sub-drainage district, gravity drainage district, gravity sub-drainage district, or municipality contributing to the construction thereof in proportion to the contribution. The chief engineer is authorized to include in his plan of reclamation as provided for in R.S. 38:1621, the work thus to be undertaken as a joint enterprise.
A drainage district may open, deepen and enlarge natural drains within or without the district which may be deemed necessary, and perform all work connected therewith which may be deemed necessary, to make the natural drains effective. The drainage district may cut and open new drains and canals wherever deemed necessary, and in order to carry out this drainage work the drainage commissioners are specially authorized to enter into contracts for the performance of this work, or to purchase machinery and cause the work to be done without the necessity of advertising for bids, and perform all other acts necessary to fully drain all the land in their district, or sub-drainage district, and maintain the drainage when established.
The drainage commissioners of a drainage district, for the purpose of securing a proper outlet for the waters of the district they represent, may extend canals or ditches, or both canals and ditches, beyond the limits of their respective districts with the same power and authority of expropriating the right-of-way in the same manner and to the same extent as if the canals and ditches were wholly within the district they represent.
In all cases where a drainage district created under the provisions of this Part shall not have incurred debt nor issued bonds not entirely paid in principal and interest, the police jury or juries creating the district may, with the concurrence of the board of commissioners and chief engineer of the district, change the boundaries of the drainage district so as to enlarge or diminish the district, or may entirely repeal the ordinance creating the drainage district.