Upon receipt of the application it shall be the duty of the chief engineer to endorse thereon the date of its receipt and assign a number to the same. If upon examination the application is found to be defective, inadequate or insufficient to enable such official to determine the nature and amount of the proposed appropriation, it shall be returned for correction or completion or for other required information. No application shall lose its priority of filing on account of such defects, provided acceptable data, proofs, maps, plats, plans and drawings are filed in the office of the chief engineer within thirty days following the date of the posting of the return of such application or such further time not exceeding one year as may be given by the chief engineer.

All maps, plats, plans and drawings shall conform to prescribed uniform standard as to materials, size, coloring and scale, and shall show: (a) The source from which the proposed appropriation is to be taken, (b) all proposed dams, dikes, reservoirs, canals, pipe lines, power houses and other structures for the purpose of storing, conveying or using water for the purpose approved and their positions or courses in connection with the boundary lines and corners of the lands which they occupy. Land listed for irrigation shall be shown in government subdivisions or fractions thereof. Default in the refiling of any application within the time limit specified shall constitute a forfeiture of priority date and the dismissal of the application.