1. The owner or owners in fee of any lands constituting a portion of the district may file with the board a petition praying that such lands be excluded and taken from the district.

2. Petitions shall describe the lands which the petitioners desire to have excluded. The petition must be acknowledged in the same manner and form as required in case of a conveyance of land and be accompanied by a deposit of money sufficient to pay all costs of the exclusion proceedings.

3. The secretary of the board shall cause a notice of filing of such petition to be published in the county in which the lands, or the major portion thereof, are located. The notice shall state the filing of such petition, the names of petitioners, descriptions of lands mentioned in the petition, and the prayer of the petitioners; and it shall notify all persons interested to appear at the office of the board at the time named in the notice, showing cause in writing, if any they have, why the petition should not be granted.

4. The board at the time and place mentioned in the notice, or at the time or times at which the hearing of the petition may be adjourned, shall proceed to hear the petition and all objections thereto presented, in writing, by any person showing cause why the prayer of the petition should not be granted. The filing of such petition shall be deemed and taken as an assent by each and all such petitioners to the exclusion from the district of the lands mentioned in the petition, or any part thereof. The board, if they deem it not for the best interests of the district that the lands mentioned in the petition, or portion thereof, shall be excluded from the district, shall order that the petition be denied; but if the board deems it for the best interest of the district that the lands mentioned in the petition, or some portion thereof, be excluded from the district, and if there are not outstanding bonds of the district, then the board may order the lands mentioned in the petition, or some portion thereof, to be excluded from the district. In case a contract has been made between the district and the United States or any agency thereof, no change shall be made in the boundaries of the district unless the Secretary of the Interior shall assent thereto in writing and such assent be filed with the board. Upon such assent, any lands excluded from the district shall upon order of the court be discharged from all liens in favor of the United States under the contract with the United States or under bonds deposited with its agents.

5. Upon allowance of such petition, the board shall file a certified copy of the order of the board making such change with the clerk of the court, and upon order of the court the lands shall be excluded from the district.

[32:380:1955]