POWERS REGARDING WHARVES, DOCKS, AND OTHER FACILITIES; RESTRICTION.

(a) This section does not apply to facilities or aids of a type or kind used or engaged in competition with tugs, barges, salvage operations, or shipbuilding or ship repair operations.

(b) The district may:

(1) acquire, take over, construct, maintain, repair, operate, develop, and regulate wharves, docks, warehouses, grain elevators, dumping facilities, belt railways, lands, intermodal, and other facilities or aids consistent with or necessary to the operation or development of ports or waterways in the district; and

(2) construct, extend, improve, repair, maintain, and reconstruct, cause to be constructed, extended, improved, repaired, maintained, and reconstructed, and own, use, and operate any facility of any kind necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers, rights, privileges, and functions granted by this chapter.

(c) The district may issue bonds for a purpose described by Subsection (b)(1) or to acquire necessary or proper lands, rights-of-way, dumping grounds, extensions or improvements of belt railway lines, or construction or improvements of wharves, docks, or other facilities or aids to navigation. The district may secure the obligations by liens on properties acquired, constructed, or improved and may pledge available revenue as additional security.