Within sixty days after organizing, the board of supervisors shall appoint a competent civil engineer as chief engineer, who may be an individual, copartnership or corporation, and who shall engage such assistants as the board of supervisors may approve. The chief engineer shall have control of the engineering work in said district. The chief engineer may, by and with the consent of the board of supervisors, consult any eminent engineer or engineers and obtain his or their opinion and advice concerning the reclamation or protection of land in said district. The said engineer or engineers shall make all necessary surveys of the lands within the boundary lines of said district as described by the articles of association, and of all lands adjacent thereto that may or will be improved or reclaimed in part or in whole by any system of levees or bank protection that may be outlined and adopted, and said engineer or engineers shall make a report in writing to the board of supervisors with maps and profiles of said surveys, which report shall contain a plan for leveeing, draining, reclaiming or protecting the lands and property described in the articles of association or adjacent thereto from overflow of or damage by water; provided, that the chief engineer may in his discretion, accept, approve and adopt or amend any plan for leveeing, draining, reclaiming or protecting the lands and property described in the decree of the court incorporating said district, which may have been designed by either a state or federal department, division or agency, which has for its purpose the protection and reclamation of the land and property within the district.