(a) The authority may exercise all the rights and powers of an independent agency and a body politic and corporate to construct, maintain, and operate, inside this state and in the watershed of the Sulphur River and its tributaries inside or outside the boundaries of the authority, any work considered essential:
(1) to the authority’s operation; and
(2) for its administration in controlling, storing, preserving, and distributing the water, including storm water and floodwater, of the Sulphur River and its tributary streams.
(b) The authority may exercise the power of control and regulation over the water of the Sulphur River and its tributaries as this state may exercise, subject to the constitution and laws of this state.