The Text

The legislature shall not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal, the Cayuga and Seneca canal, the Black River canal, or canal terminals heretofore or hereafter constructed, nor shall any easement in or incumbrance on such canals or terminals be created; but they shall remain the property of the state and under its management forever. When necessary in the opinion of the superintendent of public works, easements in canal lands may be granted for purposes of bridge construction, provided that such easements shall no-t interfere with or impair the use of the canals. The canals to which such prohibition applies shall be those now known as the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain, the Cayuga and Seneca, and the Black River canals until the barge canal improvement under chapter one hundred and forty-seven of the laws of one thousand nine hundred and three, as heretofore amended, and chapter three hundred and ninety-one of the laws of one thousand nine hundred and nine, as heretofore amended, shall have been completed, when such prohibition shall apply only to the said terminals, the Black River canal, the said improved canals, the portions of existing canals heretofore reserved for barge canal or canal terminal purposes by statute, the existing inland Erie canal from Tonawanda creek to connection with the Black Rock harbor, those portions of the Erie and Champlain canals heretofore reserved by chapter two hundred and forty-three of the laws of one thousand nine hundred and thirteen and canal slips numbers one and two in the city of Buffalo; provided, however, that in the city of Utica that portion of the existing Erie canal between Schuyler and Third streets may be sold or otherwise disposed of on condition that a flow of sufficient water from Schuyler to Third street to feed that portion of the canal east of Third street be maintained. The abandonment, sale or other disposition of canals or canal property shall be under and pursuant to general laws only and such laws shall secure to the state the fair appraised value of the property which may be abandoned and sold. Such general laws may provide for the abandonment of portions of the existing canals which by reason of the completion of parts of the barge canals shall have become unnecessary for purposes of navigation and shall be certified by the superintendent of public works to have become so.
Real property which has been or which may hereafter be appropriated for canal purposes shall be deemed to be held by the state in fee unless expressly taken for temporary purposes.
The leasing of surplus waters of any of the state canals or canal feeders or of any waters impounded by the construction of dams, reservoirs or other structures shall hereafter be pursuant to general laws only, but this provision shall not authorize the use for other than navigation purposes of water diverted from the Black river watershed to feed the Erie canal. No such lease nor the use of waters thereunder shall in any way injure, impair, interfere with, or endanger navigation or the construction, use, maintenance, operation or safety of the canals or of other property of the state. Each lease shall be for a stated period not exceeding thirty years and shall reserve to the state the right, whenever in the opinion of those having charge of the management and operation of the canals the needs of navigation require it, to terminate or suspend the same and to regulate or alter the amount of water to be used thereunder, together with the corresponding compensation therefor, without incurring liability upon the part of the state.