46-2,122. District or company; application for transfer and map; filing requirements; approval; conditions.

(1) Any irrigation district, reclamation district, public power and irrigation district, rural water district, or mutual irrigation or canal company may file an application for transfer and a map with the department identifying all tracts of lands that have received water delivered by the district or company and beneficially applied to the tract in at least one of the preceding ten consecutive years. The application for transfer and map shall be prepared and filed in accordance with the rules and regulations of the department.

(2) Any tract of land within the boundaries of the district or served by the company may receive a water appropriation, or portion thereof, transferred from a tract or tracts of land currently under the appropriation on file with the department. The director shall grant the transfer if:

(a) The owner of the land to which the water appropriation is attached and the owner of the ditch, canal, or other diverting works subject to transfer consent in writing to the department to the transfer of the appropriation from the tract of land;

(b) The water allotment on the receiving tract of land will not exceed the amount that can be beneficially used for the purposes for which the appropriation was made and will not exceed the least amount of water that experience may indicate is necessary, in the exercise of good husbandry, for the production of crops;

(c) The water will be applied on the receiving tract to a use in the same preference category as the use on the transferring tract; and

(d) The aggregate water use within the district or company after transfer will not exceed the aggregate water appropriation held by the district or company for the benefit of the owners of land to which the water appropriations are attached.

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