1. The owners of a majority of the acreage in any contiguous body of swamp, wet or overflowed land or other property in the nature of individual or corporate franchises in this state, or land subject to overflow, wash or bank erosion, located in one or more counties or in any city, town, or village in this state not located within any county with a charter form of government and with more than two hundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants, or in any city, town, or village of the third or fourth classification in this state which is located within any county with a charter form of government and with more than two hundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants, may form a levee district for the purpose of having such land and other property reclaimed and protected from the effects of overflow and other water, for sanitary or agricultural purposes, or from the effect of wash or bank erosion, or when the same may be conducive to the public health, convenience or welfare, or of public utility or benefit, by levee, or otherwise, and for that purpose they may make and sign articles of association in which shall be stated: the name of the district, and the number of years the same is to continue; the boundary lines of the proposed levee district; the names as listed on the county assessor’s records of the owners of land or other individual or corporate franchise property in such district, together with a plat of the district showing the lands to be covered in the district; such articles shall further state that the owners of real estate and other such property within the district whose names are subscribed to such articles are willing to and do obligate themselves to pay the tax or taxes which may be assessed against their respective lands or other property to pay the expense of organizing, and of making and maintaining the improvements that may be necessary to effect the reclamation or protection of such lands or other such property, so formed into a levee district, and to reclaim and to protect the same from the effects of overflow and other water, or from bank erosion or wash, and the articles of association shall contain a petition praying that the lands and other property described therein be declared a levee district under the provisions of this law. After the articles of association and petition have been so signed the same shall be filed in the office of the circuit clerk of the county in which such lands and other property are located; or, if such lands and other property be composed of tracts or parcels located in two or more different counties then in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which more of such lands and other property are located than in any other county; provided, that in the event any work is to be done upon any navigable stream, the consent of the federal government shall be obtained to make such improvement or improvements before the actual work on the improvements shall be begun.

2. The^* modifications to this section, as enacted by the ninety-second general assembly, second regular session, shall not be construed to enhance or limit the current law, and any interpretation thereof, with regard to where a levee district may or may not be formed within any county with a charter form of government and with more than two hundred fifty thousand but less than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants nor any city, town, village, or other political subdivision contained therein.