This section is enacted for the purpose of declaring the scope and extent of the powers, duties, purposes, responsibilities and jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission, but nothing herein shall be construed as limiting any power, duty, purpose, responsibility or jurisdiction heretofore or by this code vested in or conferred upon the commission.
(a) Upon the enacting of the State Lands Act of 1938 the Legislature intended to and did vest in the commission all those powers, duties, purposes, responsibilities and jurisdiction of the Department of Finance as set forth in Section 6102 of this code, and of the Chief of the Division of State Lands, and the Division of State Lands, including the full authority, as provided by law, to administer, sell, lease or dispose of the public lands owned by this state or under its control, including not only school lands but tidelands, submerged lands, swamp and overflowed lands, and beds of navigable rivers and lakes. The commission was further authorized to provide for the extraction of minerals and oil and gas from any or all of such lands, but its authority and jurisdiction over such lands was not and is not now limited thereto.
(b) The provisions of Section 48 of the State Lands Act of 1938, added thereto by Chapter 646 of the Statutes of 1939, as codified in Section 6301 of this code, shall hereafter supersede and control over any other provisions of law, whether general or special, relating to any tidelands or submerged lands or the beds of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, bays, estuaries, inlets or straits, without regard to whether any of such lands contain or may contain oil, gas or other minerals, and any such other provisions of law in conflict therewith are repealed.
(c) Any and all acts of the State Lands Commission heretofore performed by it in pursuance of Section 48 of the State Lands Act of 1938 are hereby confirmed, ratified and validated, without regard to whether the lands affected thereby contain or might contain oil, gas or other minerals.
(Amended by Stats. 1970, Ch. 607.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018