[§167-5]  Powers.  In addition to anyother powers granted to the board of agriculture for the purpose of carryingout all of its functions and duties, the board shall have the following powersfor the purposes of this chapter:

(1)  To acquire by eminent domain, water and watersources either above or underground, watershed, reservoir sites, rights-of-wayover lands and property for paths, trails, roads, and landing sites, ditches,tunnels, flumes, reservoirs, and pipelines necessary or proper for the constructionand maintenance of water facilities for conveying, distributing, andtransmitting water for irrigation and domestic use and for such other purposesas may properly fall within the scope of its activities in creating, managing,controlling, operating, and maintaining irrigation water facilities, any ofwhich purposes shall be held to be for a public use and purpose;

(2)  To make and execute contracts and otherinstruments necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers of the board,including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, contracts andother instruments for the purchase or sale of water and for the purchase orlease of water facilities for irrigation of the area, including but not limitedto the production of agricultural products and the land on which the facilitiesare situated, and for securing to the owners and occupiers of land alreadyusing water in a project a priority right to so much water from those of theirsources and facilities which are taken over for the project as is required forthe purposes or needs of the land, whether agricultural or nonagricultural innature, as such purposes or needs exist at the inception of the project or arethen contemplated in the immediate future;

(3)  To make and from time to time amend and repealbylaws and rules, not inconsistent with this chapter, which upon compliancewith chapter 91 shall have the force and effect of law, to carry into effectthe powers and purposes of the board;

(4)  To make surveys for the purposes of determiningthe engineering and economic feasibility of each project;

(5)  To conduct or have prepared comprehensive studiesof the crops, livestock, and poultry which may be profitably grown or producedwithin each project and the probable market for such crops, livestock, andpoultry;

(6)  To conduct feasibility studies of the economicpotential of the area;

(7)  To determine the probable costs and value ofproviding water for irrigation in any proposed project;

(8)  To investigate and make surveys of waterresources, including the possibility and feasibility of inducing rain byartificial or other means;

(9)  To define and redefine the boundaries of projectsand to consolidate or separate projects, existing or proposed pursuant to thischapter, provided that in the event the redefinition of the boundaries or theconsolidation or separation previously effected increased the total amountrequired to be derived from acreage assessments upon lands within the existingproject or projects by more than five per cent or will require an increase inthe tolls charged for water supplied to the lands or will reduce the amount ofwater normally available for distribution to the lands, then the redefinition,consolidation, or separation may be accomplished only after notice has beenpublished and a public hearing held as required for the formation of a projectupon the initiative of the board.  At the hearing, right to protest and theprocedure relative to protest shall be the same as specified in section 167-17concerning the formation of projects, and the proposed redefinition ofboundaries, consolidation, or separation of projects shall not be accomplishedif protests, such as would be sufficient to prevent the action if it were theformation of a project, are filed by owners and lessees of land within theexisting projects or projects affected thereby.

The board is empowered, upon petition of landoccupiers as provided by section 167-13, or upon petition of the Hawaiian homescommission or upon its own initiative, to prepare detailed plans for theacquisition or construction of facilities for irrigation or for economicdevelopment which in its opinion are economically feasible, to prepareestimates of the probable cost of each, and to prepare estimates of the watertolls and acreage assessments required for the cost of operation and theamortization of the investment of each project, so that the project shall beself-supporting. [L 1987, c 306, pt of §1]