reservoirs, diverting canals or races, water conduits, power houses, transmission lines and other project works as are deemed necessary or convenient for the development, transmission and utilization of the developable power and authorizing in connection therewith the use of dams or other structures or contiguous or adjacent lands belonging to the state. When any water power site or property necessary to the full development of such a site is owned by the state, or water the use of which is dependent upon the consent of the state, is not in the opinion of the commission suitable or necessary for the development of power for public use a license may be issued to a person or corporation for private use under like conditions and with the same restrictions. Whenever the use of water or the erection of structures under a license may affect the navigable waters over which the United States shall have lawfully assumed jurisdiction for purposes of navigation, such license shall not be issued until the plans for such use and structures have been submitted to and approved by the federal authorities as required by law and any licensee shall be at all times subject to the lawful exercise of such jurisdiction over the waters affected by the license for the purposes of navigation. Whenever canal lands, structures or surplus canal or canal feeder waters are covered by the license, the license shall not issue unless the superintendent of public works certifies to the commission in writing that the same are not necessary for the navigation or operation of the canals and shall not become effective until endorsed with his approval. Any licensee in the use of such license, structures or waters shall be at all times subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as the superintendent of public works shall from time to time prescribe so that the use thereof by the licensee shall not impair the efficiency of the canals and such use shall at all times be subordinate to the needs of the canals.

§ 616. Procedure on application for license. 1. Each applicant for a license shall submit to the commission a written verified application in such form as the commission may prescribe and containing such data or information of the applicant's project as the commission may require. It shall be accompanied by proposed plans and specifications showing the nature and extent of the applicant's proposed development. Applications shall be filed with the commission in the order of their receipt.

2. Each license covering water power sites or lands, the title

to which is vested in the state, shall require the payment by the licensee of an annual charge measured by a fair rental value thereof; and every license shall require the payment by the licensee of an annual charge for the purpose of reimbursing the state for the cost of administration of the provisions of this article. The commission, by resolution, shall fix and determine such annual charge, and the time or stage of development from which rentals are to be computed, whereupon if one or more applicants signifies his readiness, and establishes to the satisfaction of the commission his ability, to construct and maintain the proposed project, to pay the charge or rental fixed by the commission, and otherwise to comply with the provisions of this article in the use of such water and property, it shall give notice of such determination and of a time, not less than fifteen days from the date of the first publication of the notice, and of the place of a meeting of the commission, to take action on such application or applications.

3. A copy of such determination and notice shall be served upon each applicant for the license not less than fifteen days previous to the date set for the hearing. If the application applies to or may affect any canal or canal feeder waters, a like notice shall be given to the superintendent of public works. The commission shall also cause such notice to be published once each week for two successive weeks preceding the day of such meeting, in the state paper and in at least one newspaper of general circulation, if any, published in a county in which it is proposed to erect and maintain any part of the project works.

4. At the time and place designated in such notice, or at a time and place to which the meeting may be adjourned, the commission shall determine whether the plan or plans set forth in the application or applications on file with the commission, or any such plan, is or may be consistent with the proper development, conservation and utilization in the public interest of power resources of the water shed, stream or localities to be affected by the determination. If it shall determine that any of the plans is consistent with such development, conservation and utilization and that there is no reason why the water power involved should at the time be withheld in the public interest from development by private interests, it may grant the application. If there be two or more such applications it shall decide which of the plans is most suitable for the proper development, conservation

and utilization in the public interest of the water power resources of the water shed, stream or locality affected.

5. The commission in granting the license shall accord a preference to the applicant whose plans, being approved under the preceding subdivision, are best adapted to properly develop the water power site or sites covered by the application, provided that it is satisfied that such applicant is reliable and responsible and capable of consummating the project; and provided further that as between two or more plans equally well adapted to such purpose, a preference may be given to the application of a municipal corporation, if an order shall have been previously made by the public service commission approving the installation of a municipal power plant which it proposes to install under the license, or in default of such an application to a riparian owner, and, otherwise, to the application first filed with the commission; and provided further that the commission may impose as a condition of granting the license that the plan be modified to improve the development or otherwise conserve the public interest or protect private rights.

6. The commission from time to time, either before or after granting a license, may permit minor changes and corrections to be made in any map, plans or specifications filed by an applicant for the purpose of improving the same. It may also permit changes to be made therein for the purpose of better adapting the same to the development, conservation and utilization in the public interest of the water power resources of the water shed, stream or locality affected. No correction or change shall be made under this subdivision until the same has been authorized by a resolution adopted by the commission.

8617. Preliminary permits. The commission may issue preliminary permits for the purpose of enabling applicants for a license hereunder to secure the data and to perform the acts required by section six hundred and sixteen, provided, however, that upon the filing of any application for a preliminary permit by any person or corporation, the commission before granting such application shall at once give notice of such application in writing to any municipality which, in its judgment, is likely to be interested in or affected by such application. Each such permit shall be for the sole purpose of maintaining priority of application for a license under the terms of this article for such period. or periods, not exceeding a total of three years, as in the discre

tion of the commission may be necessary for making examinations and surveys, preparing maps, plans, specifications and estimates, and making financial arrangements. The permit shall set forth the conditions under which priority shall be maintained and the license issued. Such permits shall not be transferable and may be cancelled by order of the commission upon failure of the permittee to comply with the conditions thereof.

§ 618. Provisions and conditions of licenses. 1. The term of the license shall not exceed fifty years from its date.

2. The licensee shall agree to accept and abide by the terms and provisions of this article, and to pay to the state the charge or rental, if any, fixed by the commission and reserved in the license, or as the same may be readjusted pursuant to law.

3. The license shall by reference to maps, plans and specifications or otherwise clearly identify and define the improvement or development to be effected under the license.

4. If the license affects any canal or canal feeder waters, it shall contain a provision, in substance, reserving to the superintendent of public works the right at any and all times to enter upon the property covered by the license, and to do and perform such acts or things, including the temporary drawing off of the water from the dam or forebay from which the licensee is drawing water and such interruption in the supply of water to the licensee, as may be deemed necessary for the repair, reconstruction or improvement of the canal or any canal works or structures and that the licensee shall be at all times subject to such reasonable rules and regulations for the management and maintenance of the canals and navigation thereof as the superintendent of public works shall from time to time prescribe; also a provision in substance reserving to the commission the right, on ninety days' written notice to the licensee, to retake, recapture and resume wholly or in part the use of the water and other property covered by the license, including all structures erected upon and improvements to such property, and to control and limit the manner and extent of use of such water or other property, whenever in the opinion of the superintendent of public works, or the legislature, the necessary supply of water for the use of the canals of the state, or any future alterations or improvements of the canals, or the safety of the works connected therewith, may render such resumption, control or limitation necessary; also a provision in substance reserving to the

state the right wholly to abandon or destroy the canal, dam or works by the erection or construction of which the surplus water covered by the license is rendered available; in either of which events, the licensee, if he promptly complies with any and all lawful directions of the commission with respect to the cessation of the use of water and removal from the premises may recover from the state in the court of claims the damages resulting to him therefrom, but the damages for improvements on state lands shall not exceed the reconstruction cost. The damages for which the state shall be liable may be specified in the license. The state shall not be liable for any temporary interruption for the repair of or in the operation of the canal, and in case of a substantial change in the right or privilege granted, the commission, by agreement, may readjust the charge or rental with the licensee.

5. The license shall contain a provision in substance that if there be a partial resumption of the use of the water or of the land which is covered by the license, the licensee, at his option, may continue for the remainder of the term specified in the license to use the residue of the water and land covered by the license, under the terms and conditions of the license, or such modified terms as may be agreed upon, upon the payment to the state of a revised and readjusted charge or rental, and that if the licensee refuses to accept or continue the use of the remaining water and land at the revised and readjusted rental, the license shall terminate and the licensee shall have his claim for damages as provided by the preceding subdivision.

6. Except as otherwise provided by law, the terms and provisions of a license may be altered only by mutual agreement between the commission and the licensee, approved by resolution of the commission adopted at a regular meeting thereof after publication in the state paper and in a paper, if any, published in the county where the project is situated, twice each week for two successive weeks prior to such meeting, of a notice setting forth the time and place of the meeting at which the proposal to alter the terms and provisions of the license will be considered. If by any such agreement the amount of water available for use by the licensee is curtailed or the privileges and rights under the license are materially changed, the commission may revise and readjust the rental to be paid.

7. It may contain a provision to the effect that the licensee