Upon the filing of a petition for creation of a master water management district, and after fixing of the time, date, and place of hearing by the chancellor, the chancery clerk of the county wherein such petition is filed shall immediately publish a notice directed to the owners of land to be embraced in the proposed district, giving notice of the said petition and designating a date, not less than ten days nor more than twenty days after the last publication of notice, at which a hearing will be had on the petition. Said notice shall be published in a newspaper in each county wherein a part of such district is situated, such paper to have a general circulation in the area in said county wherein such portion of such district may be located, and said notice shall be published for three weeks in such newspaper. If there be no newspaper published in such county, then the notice provided herein shall be posted for not less than fifteen days, with one copy being posted on the bulletin board at the county courthouse and two copies posted at public places in the area proposed to be included in said master water management district. Said notice shall call upon landowners in such proposed district to show cause, if any, against establishment of such district, and such notice shall be in substantially the following form, to wit: “To all persons owning any interest in the following described lands, to wit: (with a description of the lands to be in subdivisions no smaller than quarter sections).”

Upon the date designated in the notice, or upon a subsequent day to which the matter may be continued, the chancery court shall hear all objections, if any are offered, to the organization of said district. Unless at the hearing at least one third (⅓) of the landowners owning at least one half (½) of the land proposed to be included in the district or at least one half (½) of the landowners owning at least one third (⅓) of the land proposed to be included in the district shall object to the organization, further proceedings shall be had as hereinafter provided; but the district shall not be organized in the event of such objection by at least one third (⅓) of the landowners owning at least one half (½) the land or by at least one half (½) of the landowners owning at least one third (⅓) of the land, excluding state-owned lands.