The director may exercise the power to:

1.__Establish acceptable river stream flows.__Establish acceptable river stream flows at one or more locations;

2.__Establish geographical areas.__Establish those geographical areas in or adjacent to a river watershed where the bureau's studies indicate that groundwater use from an aquifer may affect stream flow in the river or its tributaries; and

3.__Advise.__Advise the board when drought conditions exist or are expected to exist during a given year based on historical, mathematical, meteorological or other scientific considerations that may be published by the director and that may be developed in consultation with the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Conservation, Maine Geological Survey; the State Geologist; or other appropriate experts.

§450-F.__Drought protection funds

1.__Administration of funds.__The board shall administer a drought protection fund provided to it for purposes of this article by the department or other sources and shall make expenditures from the fund in accordance with this article.__The board is authorized to expend a portion of the drought protection fund for incidental costs and expenses reasonably incurred by the board in connection with its administration of the drought protection fund for such things as postage, office supplies and prorated salaries and wages of personnel assigned the tasks associated with management of the drought protection funds.

2.__Invest.__The board shall invest the unexpended balance of any drought protection fund in the same manner as other funds under its control.

3.__Interest.__Any interest or other revenues earned on the principal of any drought protection fund must be added to the unexpended balance of the drought protection funds.

4.__Accounting.__Upon request of the director, the department shall provide accounting information to the director that may be reasonably necessary for the director to perform the director's duties and functions pursuant to this article.

5.__Nonlapsing.__All money deposited in the drought protection fund is deemed to be contractually obligated and may not lapse to the general fund.