Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2015
Conservancy districts can plan and apply land treatment and structural measures to reduce flooding and associated damages. The Conservancy District Act permits conservancy districts to appraise benefits and levy assessments to pay the cost of installing, operating, and maintaining works of flood protection not included in legislative appropriations. We are concerned with the method whereby these specified costs are distributed among flood plain farmers.
The assessment criterion is: Each beneficiary shall be assessed in relation to the proportion of benefits received. That is, flood plain farmers are to pay the proportion of specified flood protection costs that equal the proportion of total benefits received. The objective of assessing is consistent and equitable, but there is yet to be developed a method for computing assessments which meet this norm or objective.