Sec. 201.151. USE OF COUNTY MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT. (a) A county may employ or permit to be employed in soil conservation and the prevention of soil waste through erosion, any county machinery, including road machinery or county road equipment. Before employing the machinery or equipment or permitting it to be employed, the commissioners court must determine that the machinery or equipment is not demanded for building or maintaining the roads of the county and must enter that determination in the minutes of the court. The commissioners court shall provide for compensation to be paid for employment of the machinery or equipment and for that compensation to be paid into the county road fund or the road fund of a defined conservation district or authorized subdivision in the county.

(b) In the public service of conserving the soil fertility of the land of the county, the commissioners court may cooperate with the landowners and taxpayers of the county in all judicious efforts for the preservation of the productiveness of the soil from avoidable waste and loss of productiveness of agricultural crops necessary to the public welfare. In doing that, the county may permit the use of available machinery and equipment for those purposes by written contract, under which the county is to receive compensation from the landowner or taxpayer.

(c) The compensation under a contract under Subsection (b) of this section must be paid on a uniform basis considered equitable and proper by the commissioners court. The compensation shall be paid into the road and bridge fund of the county. The commissioners court may provide for the payments from landowners or taxpayers to be paid in equitable amounts and intervals when county taxes are collected.

(d) The commissioners court or a representative of the commissioners court may not go on the land of any landowner to improve, terrace, protect, or ditch the land until requested to do so in writing by the owner of the land. The commissioners court may not be required to do that work unless the court determines that the work is of public benefit and elects to do the work.

(e) In any county with a population of not less than 22,000 or more than 23,000, not less than 60,000 nor more than 80,000, or not less than 290,000 nor more than 360,000, the commissioners court by order entered in its minutes may rent or let directly to a landowner in the county any machinery or equipment, including a tractor or a grader, for use on land situated in the county in the construction of terraces, dikes, and ditches for the purpose of soil conservation or soil erosion prevention or for the purpose of constructing water tanks and reservoirs. The landowner and the commissioners court shall agree on the amount to be paid by the landowner to the county for the use of the machinery or equipment and that amount shall be specified in the order renting or letting the machinery or equipment.

Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 1480, ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1981.