GENERAL WATER SUPPLY POWERS.

(a) The authority, inside or outside its boundaries, may:

(1) construct, acquire, equip, acquire storage rights at, operate, or maintain a dam or reservoir;

(2) construct, operate, maintain, or otherwise provide water supply lines, water purification, and water pumping systems and facilities;

(3) provide water supply for municipalities, including selling water and standby service to any person;

(4) provide water for irrigation of lands and the development of commercial and industrial enterprises; and

(5) acquire storage capacity in any dam constructed or to be constructed by or with the assistance of this state or the United States from any person, this state, or the United States.

(b) The authority may bring water into the authority.

(c) It is the intent of this chapter that the authority is primarily concerned with the conservation, control, storage, distribution, and sale of water in bulk quantities in the public interest and only incidentally with the retail sale of water insofar as it does not compete with municipal water distributors and then only when necessary or convenient as a service to the public.