§485a. Definitions — Inbound Citations
43 U.S.C. § 485a
Cited by 318 provisions in release 119-102.
Citations to §485a(a)
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(c) In any request made to the Secretary for a land classification or reclassification under this section, the organization or representatives of the water users shall furnish a list of those lands which are considered to be of comparatively low productivity or to be nonproductive, and of those lands which are considered to be of greater or lesser productivity than indicated by existing classifications, if any, made pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws, and shall furnish also such data relating thereto as the Secretary by regulation may require.
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Sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title shall be a supplement to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto).
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Whenever an irrigation district, municipality, or water users’ organization assumes operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply pursuant to a contract entered into with the United States in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Secretary of the Interior may transfer to said district, municipality, or organization title to movable property which has been purchased with funds advanced by the district, municipality, or organization or which, in the case of property purchased with appropriated funds, is necessary to the operation and maintenance of such works and the value of which is to be repaid under a contract with the district, municipality, or organization. In order to encourage the assumption by irrigation districts, municipalities, and water users’ organizations of the operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply, the Secretary is authorized to use appropriated funds available for the project involved to acquire movable property for transfer under the terms and conditions hereinbefore provided, at the time operation and maintenance is assumed.
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Whenever a municipal corporation or other organization to which water for municipal, domestic, or industrial use is furnished or distributed under a contract entered into with the United States pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws so requests, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to transfer to it or its nominee the care, operation, and maintenance of the works by which such water supply is made available or such part of those works as, in his judgment, is appropriate in the circumstances, subject to such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
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Expenditures of funds hereafter specifically appropriated for rehabilitation and betterment of any project constructed under authority of the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] and of irrigation systems on projects governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), shall be made only after the organizations concerned shall have obligated themselves for the return thereof, in installments fixed in accordance with their ability to pay, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior in the light of their outstanding repayment obligations, and which shall, to the fullest practicable extent, be scheduled for return with their construction charge installments or otherwise scheduled as he shall determine: Provided, That repayment of such loans made for small reclamation projects shall include interest in accordance with the provisions of said Small Reclamation Projects Act. No such determination of the Secretary of the Interior shall become effective until the expiration of sixty days after it has been submitted to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; except that, any such determination may become effective prior to the expiration of such sixty days in any case in which each such committee approves an earlier date and notifies the Secretary in writing, of such approval: Provided, That when Congress is not in session the Secretary’s determination, if accompanied by a finding by the Secretary that substantial hardship to the water users concerned or substantial further injury to the project works will result, shall become effective when the chairman and ranking minority member of each such committee shall file with the Secretary their written approval of said findings. The term “rehabilitation and betterment”, as used in this section, shall mean maintenance, including replacements, which cannot be financed currently, as otherwise contemplated by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of operation and maintenance costs, but shall not include construction, the costs of which are returnable, in whole or in part, through “construction charges” as that term is defined in section 485a(d) of this title. Such rehabilitation and betterment work may be performed by contract, by force-account, or, notwithstanding any other law and subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the organization concerned whereby such organization shall perform such work.
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Funds appropriated for the construction of irrigation works authorized to be undertaken pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Act of August 11, 1939 (53 Stat. 1418), as amended [16 U.S.C. 590y et seq.], or other Acts of Congress may, insofar as such funds are available for the construction of drainage facilities and other minor items, be utilized by the Secretary of the Interior to accomplish such work by contract, by force account or, notwithstanding any other law and subject only to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the repayment organization concerned whereby said organization shall perform such work: Provided, That in the event construction work to be accomplished by any one repayment organization, pursuant to contract with the United States, exceeds a total cost of $200,000, such contract shall not be executed by the Secretary prior to the expiration of sixty calendar days (which sixty days, however, shall not include days on which either the House of Representatives or the Senate is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain) from the date on which it has been submitted to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for reference to the appropriate Committees, except that such contract may be executed prior to expiration of such sixty days in any case in which both such Committees approve said contract and notify the Secretary in writing of such approval.
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In order to preserve the structural safety of Bureau of Reclamation dams and related facilities the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to perform such modifications as he determines to be reasonably required. Said performance of work shall be in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory or supplementary thereto).
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For the purpose of irrigation and reclamation of arid lands, for controlling floods, improving navigation, regulating the flow of the South Fork of the Flathead River, for the generation of electric energy, and for other beneficial uses primarily in the State of Montana but also in downstream areas, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to proceed as soon as practicable with the construction, operation, and maintenance of the proposed Hungry Horse Dam (including facilities for generating electric energy) on the South Fork of the Flathead River, Flathead County, Montana, to such a height as may be necessary to impound not less than one million acre-feet of water. The Hungry Horse project shall be subject to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto).
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain under the provisions of the Federal reclamation laws (Act June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), such additional works as he may deem necessary for irrigation purposes. Such irrigation works may be undertaken only after a report and findings thereon have been made by the Secretary of the Interior as provided in such Federal reclamation laws; and, within the limits of the water users’ repayment ability, such report may be predicated on allocation to irrigation of an appropriate portion of the cost of constructing said dam and reservoir. Said dam and reservoir and said irrigation works may be utilized for irrigation purposes only pursuant to the provisions of said Federal reclamation laws.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct a Federal reclamation project for the irrigation of the lands of the Arch Hurley Conservancy District in New Mexico under the Federal reclamation laws: Provided, That construction work is not to be initiated on said irrigation project until (a) the project shall have been found to be feasible under section 412 of this title, but the project may be found to be financially feasible if the Secretary of the Interior finds that the amount to be expended from the reclamation fund can be repaid by the District, and further that the amount of money to be expended from the reclamation fund, plus the amount of money which has been made available from other sources (for the estimated period of construction), equals the estimated cost of construction; (b) a contract shall have been executed with an irrigation or conservation district embracing the land to be irrigated under said project, which contract shall obligate the contracting district to repay the cost of construction of said project met by expenditure of moneys from the reclamation fund in forty equal annual installments, without interest; (c) contracts shall have been made with each owner of more than one hundred and sixty irrigable acres under said project, by which he, his successors, and assigns shall be obligated to sell all of his land in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigable acres at or below prices fixed by the Secretary of the Interior and within the time to be fixed by said Secretary, no water to be furnished to the land of any such large landowner refusing or failing to execute such contract.
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For the purposes of irrigating land, delivering water for industrial and municipal use, controlling floods, providing recreation and fish and wildlife benefits, and controlling and catching silt, the Secretary of the Interior, acting pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Canadian River reclamation project, Texas, described in the report of the Commissioner of Reclamation approved by the Secretary May 3, 1950, entitled “Plan for Development, Canadian River Project, Texas”, Project Planning Report Number 5–12.22–1, at an estimated cost of $86,656,000, the impounding works whereof shall be located at a suitable site on the Canadian River in that area known as the Panhandle of Texas. In addition to the impounding works, the project shall include such main canals, pumping plants, distribution and drainage systems, and other works as are necessary to accomplish the purposes of sections 600b and 600c of this title. The use by the project of waters arising in Ute and Pajarito Creeks, New Mexico, shall be only such use as does not conflict with use, present or potential, of such waters for beneficial consumptive purposes in New Mexico.
Citations to §485a(b)
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In connection with any repayment contract or other form of obligation, existing on August 4, 1939, to pay construction charges, providing for repayment on the basis of a definite period, the Secretary is authorized, upon request by the water users involved or their duly authorized representatives for amendment under this section of said contract or other form of obligation, and if in the Secretary’s judgement such amendment is both practicable and in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter, to amend said contract or other form of obligation so as to provide that the construction charges remaining unaccrued on the date of the amendment, or any later date agreed upon, shall be spread in definite annual installments on the basis of a longer definite period fixed in each case by the Secretary: Provided, That for any construction charges said longer period shall not exceed forty years, exclusive of 1931 and subsequent years to the extent of moratoria or deferments of construction charges due and payable for such years effected pursuant to Acts of Congress, from the date when the first installment of said construction charges become due and payable under the original obligation to pay said construction charges and in no event shall the unexpired part of said longer period exceed double the number of remaining years, as of the date of the amendment made pursuant to this subchapter, in which installments of said construction charges would become due and payable under said existing repayment contract or other form of obligation to pay construction charges.
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(b) The Secretary is authorized, subject to the provisions of this subsection to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation as he deems necessary to adjust such installments to amounts within the probable ability of the water users to pay. Any such deferment shall be effected only after findings by the Secretary that the installments under consideration probably cannot be paid on their due date without undue burden on the water users, considering the various factors which in the Secretary’s judgment bear on the ability of the water users so to pay.The Secretary may effect the deferments hereunder subject to such conditions and provisions relating to the operation and maintenance of the project involved as he deems to be in the interest of the United States. If, however, any deferments would affect installments to accrue more than twelve months after the action of deferment, they shall be effected only by a formal supplemental contract. Such a contract shall provide by its terms that, it being only an interim solution of the repayment problems dealt with therein, its terms are not, in themselves, to be construed as a criterion of the terms of any amendatory contract that may be negotiated and that any such amendatory contract must be approved by the Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period for the project in question beyond that permitted by the laws applicable to that project, involves no reduction in the total amount payable by the water users, and is not in other respects less advantageous to the Government than the existing contract arrangements. The Secretary shall report to the Congress all deferments granted under this subsection.
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The Secretary in this discretion may require, in connection with any contract entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, that the contract provide (1) that the payments for each year to be made to the United States shall become due and payable on such date or dates, not exceeding two, in each year as the Secretary determines will be substantially contemporaneous with the time or times in each year when water users receive crop returns and (2) if the contract be with an organization, that assessments or levies for the purpose of obtaining moneys sufficient to meet the organization’s payments under said contract shall be made and shall become due and payable within a certain period or periods of time prior to the date or dates on which the organization’s payments to the United States are due and payable, said period or periods of time to be agreed upon in each said contract.
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In connection with any contract, relating to construction charges, entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to require such provisions as he deems proper to secure the adoption of proper accounting, to protect the condition of project works and to provide for the proper use thereof, and to protect project lands against deterioration due to improper use of water. Any such contract shall require advance payment of adequate operation and maintenance charges. The Secretary is further authorized, in his discretion, to require such provisions as he deems proper to penalize delinquencies in payments of construction charges or operation and maintenance charges: Provided, That in any event there shall be penalties imposed on account of delinquencies of not less than one-half of 1 per centum per month of the delinquent charge from and after the date when such charge becomes due and payable: Provided further, That any such contract shall require that no water shall be delivered to lands or parties which are in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges, or to lands or parties which are in arrears for more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such lands or parties to the United States or to the organization in which the lands or parties are included, or to any lands or parties included in an organization which is in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges or in arrears more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such organization to the United States.
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(a) The Secretary is authorized and directed to investigate the repayment problems of any existing project contract unit in connection with which, in his judgment, a contract under section 485b or 485c1 of this title would not be practicable nor provide an economically sound adjustment, and to negotiate a contract which, in his judgment, both would provide fair and equitable treatment of the repayment problems involved and would be in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter.
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(c) The Secretary from time to time shall report to the Congress on any proposed contracts negotiated pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) or (b)(1) of this section, and he may execute any such contract on behalf of the United States only after approval thereof has been given by Act of Congress. Contracts, so approved, however, may be amended from time to time by mutual agreement and without further approval by Congress if such amendments are within the scope of authority granted prior to or after April 24, 1945, to the Secretary under any Act, except that amendments providing for repayment of construction charges in a period of years longer than authorized by this subchapter, as it may be amended, shall be effective only when approved by Congress.
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(b) No classification or reclassification pursuant to the authority of this subchapter shall be undertaken unless a request therefor, by an organization or duly authorized representatives of the water users, in the form required by subsection (c) of this section has been made of the Secretary. The Secretary shall plan the classification work, undertaken pursuant to the authority of this section, in such manner as in his judgment will result in the most expeditious completion of the work.
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(c) In any request made to the Secretary for a land classification or reclassification under this section, the organization or representatives of the water users shall furnish a list of those lands which are considered to be of comparatively low productivity or to be nonproductive, and of those lands which are considered to be of greater or lesser productivity than indicated by existing classifications, if any, made pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws, and shall furnish also such data relating thereto as the Secretary by regulation may require.
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(d) Upon receipt of any such request the Secretary shall make a preliminary determination whether the requested land classification or reclassification probably is justified by reason of the conditions of the lands involved and other pertinent conditions of the project, including its contractual relations with the United States.
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(e) If the Secretary finds probable justification and if the advance to the United States hereinafter required is made, he shall undertake as soon as practicable the classification or reclassification of the lands listed in the request, and of any other lands which have been, are, or may be included within the project involved and which in his judgment should be classified or reclassified.
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(f) One-half of the expense involved in any classification work undertaken pursuant to this section shall be charged to operation and maintenance administration nonreimbursable; and one-half shall be paid in advance by the organization involved. On determining probable justification for the requested classification or reclassification as provided in this section, the Secretary shall estimate the cost of the work involved and shall submit a statement of the estimated cost to said organization. Said organization, before commencement of the work, shall advance to the United States one-half of the amount set forth in said statement and also shall advance one-half of the amount of supplementary estimates of costs which the Secretary may find it necessary to make from time to time during the progress of the work; and said amounts shall be and remain available for expenditure by the Secretary for the purposes for which they are advanced, until the work is completed or abandoned. After completion or abandonment of the work, the Secretary, shall determine the actual costs thereof; and said organization shall pay any additional amount required to make its total payments hereunder equal to one-half of the actual cost or shall be credited with any amount by which advances made by it exceed one-half of said actual cost, as the case may be.
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(g) If in the judgment of the Secretary a classification or reclassification pursuant to the provisions of this section is a necessary preliminary to entering into a contract under section 485b or 485c1 of this title, he may require the same as a condition precedent to entering into such a contract.
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(h) No modification of any existing obligation to pay construction charges on any project shall be made by reason of any classification or reclassification undertaken pursuant to this section without express authority therefor granted by Congress upon recommendations of the Secretary made in a report under subsection (f) of this section.
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(a) No expenditures for the construction of any new project, new division of a project, or new supplemental works on a project shall be made, nor shall estimates be submitted therefor, by the Secretary until after he has made an investigation thereof and has submitted to the President and to the Congress his report and findings on—(1) the engineering feasibility of the proposed construction;(2) the estimated cost of the proposed construction;(3) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to irrigation and probably be repaid by the water users;(4) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to power and probably be returned to the United States in net power revenues;(5) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes and probably be returned to the United States.If the proposed construction is found by the Secretary to have engineering feasibility and if the repayable and returnable allocations to irrigation, power, and municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes found by the Secretary to be proper, together with any allocation to flood control or navigation made under subsection (b) of this section, equal the total estimated cost of construction as determined by the Secretary, then the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, covered by his findings, shall be deemed authorized and may be undertaken by the Secretary. If all such allocations do not equal said total estimated cost, then said new project, new division, or new supplemental works may be undertaken by the Secretary only after provision therefor has been made by Act of Congress enacted after the Secretary has submitted to the President and the Congress the report and findings involved.
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(b) In connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project there may be allocated to flood control or navigation the part of said total estimated cost which the Secretary may find to be proper. Items for any such allocations made in connection with projects which may be undertaken pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be included in the estimates of appropriations submitted by the Secretary for said projects, and funds for such portions of the projects shall not become available except as directly appropriated or allotted to the Department of the Interior. In connection with the making of such an allocation, the Secretary shall consult with the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of the Army, and may perform any of the necessary investigations or studies under a cooperative agreement with the Secretary of the Army. In the event of such an allocation the Secretary of the Interior shall operate the project for purposes of flood control or navigation, to the extent justified by said allocation therefor.
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(1) The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts to furnish water for municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes: Provided, That any such contract either (A) shall require repayment to the United States, over a period of not to exceed forty years from the year in which water is first delivered for the use of the contracting party, with interest not exceeding the rate of 3½ per centum per annum if the Secretary determines an interest charge to be proper, of an appropriate share as determined by the Secretary of that part of the construction costs allocated by him to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes; or (B) shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, and shall require the payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. Any sale of electric power or lease of power privileges, made by the Secretary in connection with the operation of any project or division of a project, shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in his judgment will produce power revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost, interest on an appropriate share of the construction investment at not less than 3 per centum per annum, and such other fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper: Provided further, That in said sales or leases preference shall be given to municipalities and other public corporations or agencies; and also to cooperatives and other nonprofit organizations financed in whole or in part by loans made pursuant to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 [7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.]. Nothing in this subsection shall be applicable to provisions in existing contracts, made pursuant to law, for the use of power and miscellaneous revenues of a project for the benefit of users of water from such project. The provisions of this subsection respecting the sales of electric power and leases of power privileges shall be an authorization in addition to and alternative to any authority in existing laws related to particular projects and reserve to the Secretary the exclusive authority to develop small conduit hydropower using Bureau of Reclamation facilities and pumped storage hydropower exclusively using Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs. No contract relating to municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes or to electric power or power privileges shall be made unless, in the judgment of the Secretary, it will not impair the efficiency of the project for irrigation purposes.
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(A) When carrying out this subsection, the Secretary shall first offer the lease of power privilege to an irrigation district or water users association operating the applicable transferred conduit, or to the irrigation district or water users association receiving water from the applicable reserved conduit. The Secretary shall determine a reasonable time frame for the irrigation district or water users association to accept or reject a lease of power privilege offer for a small conduit hydropower project.
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(B) If the irrigation district or water users association elects not accept1 a lease of power privilege offer under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall offer the lease of power privilege to other parties in accordance with this subsection.
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(6) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or impede the delivery and management of water by Bureau of Reclamation facilities, as water used for conduit hydropower generation shall be deemed incidental to use of water for the original project purposes. Lease of power privilege shall be made only when, in the judgment of the Secretary, the exercise of the lease will not be incompatible with the purposes of the project or division involved, nor shall it create any unmitigated financial or physical impacts to the project or division involved. The Secretary shall notify and consult with the irrigation district or water users association operating the transferred conduit before offering the lease of power privilege and shall prescribe terms and conditions that will adequately protect the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and other interests of the United States and the project or division involved.
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(d) No water may be delivered for irrigation of lands in connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project until an organization, satisfactory in form and powers to the Secretary, has entered into a repayment contract with the United States, in a form satisfactory to the Secretary, providing among other things—(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.
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(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.
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(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(e) In lieu of entering into a repayment contract pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section to cover that part of the cost of the construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation, the Secretary, in his discretion, may enter into either short- or long-term contracts to furnish water for irrigation purposes. Each such contract shall be for such period, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, due consideration being given to that part of the cost of construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation; and shall require payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. In the event such contracts are made for furnishing water for irrigation purposes, the costs of any irrigation water distribution works constructed by the United States in connection with the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, shall be covered by a repayment contract entered into pursuant to said subsection (d).
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(f) No less than sixty days before entering into or amending any repayment contract or any contract for the delivery of irrigation water (except any contract for the delivery of surplus or interim irrigation water whose duration is for one year or less) the Secretary shall—(1) publish notice of the proposed contract or amendment in newspapers of general circulation in the affected area and shall make reasonable efforts to otherwise notify interested parties which may be affected by such contract or amendment, together with information indicating to whom comments or inquiries concerning the proposed actions can be addressed; and(2) provide an opportunity for submission of written data, views and arguments, and shall consider all substantive comments so received.
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In administering subsections (d) and (e) of section 485h of this title, the Secretary of the Interior shall—
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(3) credit each year to every party which has entered into or which shall enter into a long-term contract pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title so much of the amount paid by said party on or before the due date as is in excess of the share of the operation and maintenance costs of the project which the Secretary finds is properly chargeable to that party. Credit for payments heretofore made under any such contract shall be established by the Secretary as soon after July 2, 1956 as it is feasible for him to do so. After the sum of such credits is equal to the amount which would have been for repayment by the party if a repayment contract under subsection (d) of section 485h of this title had been entered into, which amount shall be established by the Secretary upon completion of the project concerned or as far in advance thereof as is feasible, no construction component shall be included in any charges made for the furnishing of water to the contracting party and any charges theretofore fixed by contract or otherwise shall be reduced accordingly;
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The Secretary is authorized to negotiate amendments to existing contracts entered into pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title to conform said contracts to the provisions of sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title.
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Nothing in sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title shall be construed as affecting or intended to affect or to in any way interfere with the laws of any State relating to the control, appropriation, use, or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any vested right acquired thereunder, and the Secretary in carrying out the provisions of such sections, shall proceed in conformity with such laws, and nothing herein shall in any way affect any right of any State or of the Federal Government or of any landowner, appropriator, or user of water in, to, or from any interstate stream or the waters thereof: Provided, That the right to the use of water acquired under the provisions of such sections shall be appurtenant to the land irrigated and beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right.
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After the execution of a contract pursuant to the authority of section 9(d)(1) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 [43 U.S.C. 485h(d)(1)] and prior to the commencement of the development period provided thereunder, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to amend such contract to provide for irrigation blocks, or if such are already provided, to add to or modify such irrigation blocks, as he shall deem desirable to carry out the purposes of that Act.
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In any repayment contract which provides for payment of construction charges by single annual installments, the Secretary may by agreement with the contracting organization amend such contract to provide for the payment of such annual installments in two parts on such dates in the calendar year as may best enable the contracting organization to meet its payments.
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The Secretary is authorized to perform any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this subchapter into full force and effect.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to use the reclamation fund for the operation and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation works constructed under the provisions of this Act.
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All operation and maintenance charges upon projects existing prior to December 5, 1924, shall become due and payable on the date fixed for each project by the Secretary of the Interior, and if such charge is paid on or before the date when due there shall be a discount of 5 per centum of such charge.
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In the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior suit or action may be brought for the amounts of operation or maintenance charges in default and penalties in like manner as provided in section 481 of this title.
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When the payments required by this Act are made for the major portion of the lands irrigated from the waters of any of the works herein provided for, then the management and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their expense under such form of organization and under such rules and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior; Provided, That the title to and the management and operation of the reservoirs and the works necessary for their protection and operation shall remain in the Government until otherwise provided by Congress.
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Whenever any legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district shall so request, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to transfer to such water-users’ association or irrigation district the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as he may prescribe.
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Whenever an irrigation district, municipality, or water users’ organization assumes operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply pursuant to a contract entered into with the United States in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Secretary of the Interior may transfer to said district, municipality, or organization title to movable property which has been purchased with funds advanced by the district, municipality, or organization or which, in the case of property purchased with appropriated funds, is necessary to the operation and maintenance of such works and the value of which is to be repaid under a contract with the district, municipality, or organization. In order to encourage the assumption by irrigation districts, municipalities, and water users’ organizations of the operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply, the Secretary is authorized to use appropriated funds available for the project involved to acquire movable property for transfer under the terms and conditions hereinbefore provided, at the time operation and maintenance is assumed.
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Whenever a municipal corporation or other organization to which water for municipal, domestic, or industrial use is furnished or distributed under a contract entered into with the United States pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws so requests, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to transfer to it or its nominee the care, operation, and maintenance of the works by which such water supply is made available or such part of those works as, in his judgment, is appropriate in the circumstances, subject to such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
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Whenever two-thirds of the irrigable area of any project, or division of a project, shall be covered by water-right contracts between the water users and the United States, said project shall be required, as a condition precedent to receiving the benefits of sections 371, 376, 377, 412, 417, 433, 438,1 462, 463,1 466, 467,1 473,1 474,1 478, 493, 494, 500, 501, and 526 of this title to take over, through a legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district, the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and thereafter the United States, in its relation to said project, shall deal with a water users’ association or irrigation district, and when the water users assume control of a project, the operation and maintenance charges for the year then current shall be covered into the construction account to be repaid as part of the construction repayments.
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Whenever the water users take over the care, operation, and maintenance of a project, or a division of a project, the total accumulated net profits, as determined by the Secretary, derived from the operation of project power plants, leasing of project grazing and farm lands, and the sale or use of town sites shall be credited to the construction charge of the project, or a division thereof, and thereafter the net profits from such sources may be used by the water users to be credited annually, first, on account of project construction charge, second, on account of project operation and maintenance charge, and third, as the water users may direct. No distribution to individual water users shall be made out of any such profits before all obligations to the Government shall have been fully paid.
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Expenditures of funds hereafter specifically appropriated for rehabilitation and betterment of any project constructed under authority of the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] and of irrigation systems on projects governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), shall be made only after the organizations concerned shall have obligated themselves for the return thereof, in installments fixed in accordance with their ability to pay, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior in the light of their outstanding repayment obligations, and which shall, to the fullest practicable extent, be scheduled for return with their construction charge installments or otherwise scheduled as he shall determine: Provided, That repayment of such loans made for small reclamation projects shall include interest in accordance with the provisions of said Small Reclamation Projects Act. No such determination of the Secretary of the Interior shall become effective until the expiration of sixty days after it has been submitted to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; except that, any such determination may become effective prior to the expiration of such sixty days in any case in which each such committee approves an earlier date and notifies the Secretary in writing, of such approval: Provided, That when Congress is not in session the Secretary’s determination, if accompanied by a finding by the Secretary that substantial hardship to the water users concerned or substantial further injury to the project works will result, shall become effective when the chairman and ranking minority member of each such committee shall file with the Secretary their written approval of said findings. The term “rehabilitation and betterment”, as used in this section, shall mean maintenance, including replacements, which cannot be financed currently, as otherwise contemplated by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of operation and maintenance costs, but shall not include construction, the costs of which are returnable, in whole or in part, through “construction charges” as that term is defined in section 485a(d) of this title. Such rehabilitation and betterment work may be performed by contract, by force-account, or, notwithstanding any other law and subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the organization concerned whereby such organization shall perform such work.
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Funds appropriated for the construction of irrigation works authorized to be undertaken pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Act of August 11, 1939 (53 Stat. 1418), as amended [16 U.S.C. 590y et seq.], or other Acts of Congress may, insofar as such funds are available for the construction of drainage facilities and other minor items, be utilized by the Secretary of the Interior to accomplish such work by contract, by force account or, notwithstanding any other law and subject only to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the repayment organization concerned whereby said organization shall perform such work: Provided, That in the event construction work to be accomplished by any one repayment organization, pursuant to contract with the United States, exceeds a total cost of $200,000, such contract shall not be executed by the Secretary prior to the expiration of sixty calendar days (which sixty days, however, shall not include days on which either the House of Representatives or the Senate is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain) from the date on which it has been submitted to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for reference to the appropriate Committees, except that such contract may be executed prior to expiration of such sixty days in any case in which both such Committees approve said contract and notify the Secretary in writing of such approval.
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(a) Not later than 2 years after March 12, 2019, the Secretary shall submit to Congress an Asset Management Report that—(1) describes the efforts of the Bureau—(A) to maintain in a reliable manner all reserved works at Reclamation facilities; and(B) to standardize and streamline data reporting and processes across regions and areas for the purpose of maintaining reserved works at Reclamation facilities; and(2) expands on the information otherwise provided in an Asset Management Report, in accordance with subsection (b).
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(B) As soon as practicable after March 12, 2019, the Secretary shall issue guidance that describes the applicability of the rating system applicable under paragraph (2)(B) to Reclamation facilities.
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(4) Except as provided in paragraph (5), the Secretary shall make publicly available, including on the internet, the Asset Management Report required under subsection (a).
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(5) The Secretary may exclude from the public version of the Asset Management Report made available under paragraph (4) any information that the Secretary identifies as sensitive or classified, but shall make available to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives a version of the report containing the sensitive or classified information.
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(c) Not later than 2 years after the date on which the Asset Management Report is submitted under subsection (a) and biennially thereafter, the Secretary shall update the Asset Management Report, subject to the requirements of section 505a–2(b)(2) of this title.
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(d) To the extent that such consultation would assist the Secretary in preparing the Asset Management Report under subsection (a) and updates to the Asset Management Report under subsection (c), the Secretary shall consult with—(1) the Secretary of the Army (acting through the Chief of Engineers); and(2) water and power contractors.
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(1) the Secretary of the Army (acting through the Chief of Engineers); and
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(a) The Secretary shall coordinate with the non-Federal entities responsible for the operation and maintenance of transferred works in developing reporting requirements for Asset Management Reports with respect to major repair and rehabilitation needs for transferred works that are similar to the reporting requirements described in section 505a–1(b) of this title.
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(1) After considering input from water and power contractors of the Bureau, the Secretary shall develop and implement a rating system for transferred works that incorporates, to the maximum extent practicable, the rating system for major repair and rehabilitation needs for reserved works developed under section 505a–1(b)(3) of this title.
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In order to preserve the structural safety of Bureau of Reclamation dams and related facilities the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to perform such modifications as he determines to be reasonably required. Said performance of work shall be in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory or supplementary thereto).
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(4) Costs allocated to the purpose of municipal, industrial, and miscellaneous water service, commercial power, and the portion of recreation and fish and wildlife enhancement costs reimbursable under the Federal Water Project Recreation Act [16 U.S.C. 460l–12 et seq.], shall be repaid within 50 years with interest. The interest rate used shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, taking into consideration average market yields on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States with remaining periods to maturity comparable to the applicable reimbursement period during the month preceding the fiscal year in which the costs are incurred. To the extent that more than one interest rate is determined pursuant to the preceding sentence, the Secretary of the Treasury shall establish an interest rate at the weighted average of the rates so determined.
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(d) The Secretary is authorized to negotiate appropriate contracts with project beneficiaries providing for the return of reimbursable costs under this subchapter: Provided, however, That no contract entered into pursuant to this subchapter shall be deemed to be a new or amended contract for the purposes of section 390cc(a) of this title.
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There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 1979 and ensuing fiscal years such sums as may be necessary and, effective October 1, 1983, not to exceed an additional $650,000,000 (October 1, 1983, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2000, not to exceed an additional $95,000,000 (October 1, 2000, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2001, not to exceed an additional $32,000,000 (October 1, 2001, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2003, not to exceed an additional $540,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), and effective October 1, 2015, not to exceed an additional $1,100,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in construction costs as indicated by engineering cost indexes applicable to the types of construction involved herein, to carry out the provisions of this subchapter to remain available until expended if so provided by the appropriations Act: Provided, That no funds exceeding $20,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), as adjusted to reflect any ordinary fluctuations in construction costs indicated by applicable engineering cost indexes, shall be obligated for carrying out actual construction to modify an existing dam under authority of this subchapter prior to 30 calendar days from the date that the Secretary has transmitted a report on such existing dam to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate. The report required to be submitted by this section will consist of a finding by the Secretary of the Interior to the effect that modifications are required to be made to insure the safety of an existing dam. Such finding shall be accompanied by a technical report containing information on the need for structural modification, the corrective action deemed to be required, alternative solutions to structural modification that were considered, the estimated cost of needed modifications, and environmental impacts if any resulting from the implementation of the recommended plan of modification. For modification expenditures between $1,800,000 and $20,000,000 (October 1, 2015, price levels), the Secretary of the Interior shall, at least 30 days before the date on which the funds are expended, submit written notice of the expenditures to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate that provides a summary of the project, the cost of the project, and any alternatives that were considered.
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(a) On identifying a Bureau of Reclamation facility for modification, the Secretary shall provide to the project beneficiaries written notice—(1) describing the need for the modification and the process for identifying and implementing the modification; and(2) summarizing the administrative and legal requirements relating to the modification.
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(b) The Secretary shall—(1) provide project beneficiaries an opportunity to consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on the planning, design, and construction of the proposed modification; and(2) in consultation with project beneficiaries, develop and provide timeframes for the consultation described in paragraph (1).
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(1) Prior to submitting the reports required under section 509 of this title, the Secretary shall consider any alternative submitted in writing, in accordance with the timeframes established under subsection (b), by a project beneficiary that has elected to consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on a modification.
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(3) The response of the Secretary shall be included in the reports required by section 509 of this title.
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Notwithstanding section 507 of this title, if the Secretary, in her judgment, determines that additional project benefits, including but not limited to additional conservation storage capacity, are necessary and in the interests of the United States and the project and are feasible and not inconsistent with the purposes of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to develop additional project benefits through the construction of new or supplementary works on a project in conjunction with the Secretary’s activities under section 506 of this title and subject to the conditions described in the feasibility study, provided a cost share agreement related to the additional project benefits is reached among non-Federal and Federal funding participants and the costs associated with developing the additional project benefits are allocated exclusively among beneficiaries of the additional project benefits and repaid consistent with all provisions of Federal Reclamation law (the Act of June 17, 1902, 43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.) and acts supplemental to and amendatory of that Act.
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(1) The term “inspection” means an inspection of a project facility carried out by the Secretary—(A) to assess and determine the general condition of the project facility; and(B) to estimate the value of property, and the size of the population, that would be at risk if the project facility fails, is breached, or otherwise allows flooding to occur.
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(3) The term “reserved works” mean2 any project facility at which the Secretary carries out the operation and maintenance of the project facility.
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(1) Not later than 1 year after March 30, 2009, the Secretary in consultation with transferred works operating entities shall develop, consistent with existing transfer contracts, specific inspection guidelines for project facilities which are in proximity to urbanized areas and which could pose a risk to public safety or property damage if such project facilities were to fail.
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(2) Not later than 3 years after March 30, 2009, the Secretary shall conduct inspections of those project facilities, which are in proximity to urbanized areas and which could pose a risk to public safety or property damage if such facilities were to fail, using such specific inspection guidelines and criteria developed pursuant to paragraph (1). In selecting project facilities to inspect, the Secretary shall take into account the potential magnitude of public safety and economic damage posed by each project facility.
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(3) The costs incurred by the Secretary in conducting these inspections shall be nonreimbursable.
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(b) The Secretary shall use the data collected through the conduct of the inspections under subsection (a)(2) to—(1) provide recommendations to the transferred works operating entities for improvement of operation and maintenance processes, operating procedures including operation guidelines consistent with existing transfer contracts, and structural modifications to those transferred works;(2) determine an appropriate inspection frequency for such nondam project facilities which shall not exceed 6 years; and(3) provide, upon request of transferred work operating entities, local governments, or State agencies, information regarding potential hazards posed by existing or proposed residential, commercial, industrial or public-use development adjacent to project facilities.
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(1) The Secretary is authorized, at the request of a transferred works operating entity in proximity to an urbanized area, to provide technical assistance to accomplish the following, if consistent with existing transfer contracts:(A) Development of documented operating procedures for a project facility.(B) Development of documented emergency notification and response procedures for a project facility.(C) Development of facility inspection criteria for a project facility.(D) Development of a training program on operation and maintenance requirements and practices for a project facility for a transferred works operating entity’s workforce.(E) Development of a public outreach plan on the operation and risks associated with a project facility.(F) Development of any other plans or documentation which, in the judgment of the Secretary, will contribute to public safety and the sage operation of a project facility.
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(F) Development of any other plans or documentation which, in the judgment of the Secretary, will contribute to public safety and the sage operation of a project facility.
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(2) The Secretary is authorized to provide, on a non-reimbursable basis, up to 50 percent of the cost of such technical assistance, with the balance of such costs being advanced by the transferred works operating entity or other non-Federal source. The non-Federal 50 percent minimum cost share for such technical assistance may be in the form of in-lieu contributions of resources by the transferred works operating entity or other non-Federal source.
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(a) The Secretary or the transferred works operating entity may carry out, in accordance with subsection (b) and consistent with existing transfer contracts, any extraordinary operation and maintenance work on a project facility that the Secretary determines to be reasonably required to preserve the structural safety of the project facility.
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(1) For reserved works, costs incurred by the Secretary in conducting extraordinary operation and maintenance work will be allocated to the authorized reimbursable purposes of the project and shall be repaid within 50 years, with interest, from the year in which work undertaken pursuant to this subchapter is substantially complete.
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(2) For transferred works, the Secretary is authorized to advance the costs incurred by the transferred works operating entity in conducting extraordinary operation and maintenance work and negotiate appropriate 50-year repayment contracts with project beneficiaries providing for the return of reimbursable costs, with interest, under this subsection: Provided, however, That no contract entered into pursuant to this subchapter shall be deemed to be a new or amended contract for the purposes of section 390cc(a) of this title.
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(3) The interest rate used for computing interest on work in progress and interest on the unpaid balance of the reimbursable costs of extraordinary operation and maintenance work authorized by this subchapter shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which extraordinary operation and maintenance work is commenced, on the basis of average market yields on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States with the remaining periods of maturity comparable to the applicable reimbursement period of the project, adjusted to the nearest ⅛ of 1 percent on the unamortized balance of any portion of the loan.
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(1) The Secretary or the transferred works operating entity shall carry out any emergency extraordinary operation and maintenance work on a project facility that the Secretary determines to be necessary to minimize the risk of imminent harm to public health or safety, or property.
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(2) The Secretary may advance funds for emergency extraordinary operation and maintenance work and shall seek reimbursement from the transferred works operating entity or benefitting entity upon receiving a written assurance from the governing body of such entity that it will negotiate a contract pursuant to this section for repayment of costs incurred by the Secretary in undertaking such work.
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(3) If the Secretary determines that a project facility inspected and maintained pursuant to the guidelines and criteria set forth in section 510a(a) of this title requires extraordinary operation and maintenance pursuant to paragraph (1), the Secretary may provide Federal funds on a nonreimbursable basis sufficient to cover 35 percent of the cost of the extraordinary operation and maintenance allocable to the transferred works operating entity, which is needed to minimize the risk of imminent harm. The remaining share of the Federal funds advanced by the Secretary for such work shall be repaid under subsection (b).
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(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (6), the Secretary may expend amounts in the Account to fund and provide for extended repayment of the funds for eligible projects identified in a report submitted under paragraph (5)(B).
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(A) The Secretary may not expend amounts under paragraph (2) with respect to an eligible project described in that paragraph unless the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs has entered into a contract to repay the amounts under subsection (b)(2).
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(B) Amounts repaid by a transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs receiving funds under a repayment contract entered into under this subsection shall be deposited in the Account and shall be available to the Secretary for expenditure, subject to paragraph (6), in accordance with this subsection, and without further appropriation.
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(A) Beginning with fiscal year 2022, not less than once per fiscal year, the Secretary shall accept, during an application period established by the Secretary, applications from transferred works operating entities or project beneficiaries responsible for payment of reimbursable costs for funds and extended repayment for eligible projects.
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(C) Not later than 60 days after December 27, 2020, the Secretary shall issue guidelines describing the information required to be provided in an application for funds and extended repayment under this subsection that require, at a minimum—(i) a description of the project for which the funds are requested;(ii) the amount of funds requested;(iii) the repayment period requested by the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs;(iv) alternative non-Federal funding options that have been evaluated;(v) the financial justification for requesting an extended repayment period; and(vi) the financial records of the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs.
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(D) The Secretary shall review each application submitted under subparagraph (A)—(i) to determine whether the project is eligible for funds and an extended repayment period under this subsection;(ii) to determine if the project has been identified by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of the major rehabilitation and replacement of a project facility; and(iii) to conduct a financial analysis of—(I) the project; and(II) repayment capability of the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs.
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(5) Not later than 90 days after the date on which an application period closes under paragraph (4)(A), the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Energy and Natural Resources and Appropriations of the Senate and the Committees on Natural Resources and Appropriations of the House of Representatives a report that—(A) describes the results of the Secretary’s review of each application under paragraph (4)(D), including a determination of whether the project is eligible;(B) identifies each project eligible for funds and extended repayment under this subsection;(C) with respect to each eligible project identified under subparagraph (B), includes—(i) a description of—(I) the eligible project;(II) the anticipated cost and duration of the eligible project;(III) any remaining engineering or environmental compliance that is required before the eligible project commences;(ii) an analysis of—(I) the repayment period proposed in the application; and(II) if the Secretary recommends a minimum necessary repayment period that is different than the repayment period proposed in the application, the minimum necessary repayment period recommended by the Secretary; and(iii) an analysis of alternative non-Federal funding options;(D) describes the allocation of funds from deposits into the Account under paragraph (3)(B); and(E) describes the balance of funds in the Account as of the date of the report.
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(A) describes the results of the Secretary’s review of each application under paragraph (4)(D), including a determination of whether the project is eligible;
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(i) If Congress has not enacted legislation establishing alternate allocations by the date on which the Act making full-year appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for the applicable fiscal year is enacted into law, amounts made available under paragraph (1) shall be allocated by the Secretary.
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(ii) If Congress enacts legislation establishing alternate allocations for amounts made available under paragraph (1) that are less than the full amount appropriated under that paragraph, the difference between the amount appropriated and the alternate allocation shall be allocated by the Secretary.
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(B) the use of funds otherwise made available to the Secretary to carry out subsection (a).
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In carrying out the purposes of the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto and known as the reclamation law, the Secretary of the Interior may enter into contract with any legally organized irrigation district whereby such irrigation district shall agree to pay the moneys required to be paid to the United States, and in such event water-right applications on the part of landowners and entrymen, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, may be dispensed with. In the event of such contract being made with an irrigation district, the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, may contract that the payments, both for the construction of irrigation works and for operation and maintenance, on the part of the district shall be made upon such dates as will best conform to the district and taxation laws of the respective States under which such irrigation districts shall be formed, and if he deem it advisable he may contract for such penalties or interest charges in case of delinquency in payments as he may deem proper and consistent with such State laws, notwithstanding the provisions of sections 471, 472, 475, 478 to 481, 492, 493, 494 to 497 and 499 of this title. The Secretary of the Interior may accept a partial payment of the amount due from any district to the United States, providing such acceptance shall not constitute a waiver of the balance remaining due nor the interest or penalties, if any, accruing upon said balance: Provided, That no contract with an irrigation district under this section and sections 512 and 513 of this title shall be binding on the United States until the proceedings on the part of the district for the authorization of the execution of the contract with the United States shall have been confirmed by decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, or pending appellate action if ground for appeal be laid.
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Patents and water-right certificates which shall be issued after May 15, 1922, under the terms of subchapter XIV of this chapter, for lands lying within any irrigation district with which the United States shall have contracted, by which the irrigation district agrees to make the payment of all charges for the building of irrigation works and for operation and maintenance, shall not reserve to the United States a lien for the payment of such charges; and where such a lien shall have been reserved in any patent or water-right certificate issued under said subchapter, the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to release such lien in such manner and form as may be deemed effective; and the Secretary of the Interior is further empowered to release liens in favor of the United States contained in water-right applications and to assent to the release of liens to secure reimbursement of moneys due to the United States pursuant to water-right applications running in favor of the water users’ association and contained in stock subscription contracts to such associations, when the lands covered by such liens shall be subject to assessment and levy for the collection of all moneys due and to become due to the United States by irrigation districts formed pursuant to State law and with which the United States shall have entered into contract therefor: Provided, That no such lien so reserved to the United States in any patent or water-right certificate shall be released until the owner of the land covered by the lien shall consent in writing to the assessment, levy, and collection by such irrigation district of taxes against said land for the payment to the United States of the contract obligation: Provided further, That before any lien is released under this section the Secretary of the Interior shall file a written report finding that the contracting irrigation district is legally organized under the laws of the State in which its lands are located, with full power to enter into the contract and to collect by assessment and levy against the lands of the district the amount of the contract obligation.
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Upon the execution of any contract between the United States and any irrigation district pursuant to sections 511 and 512 of this title the public lands included within such irrigation district, when subject to entry, and entered lands within such irrigation district, for which no final certificates shall have been issued and which may be designated by the Secretary of the Interior in said contract, shall be subject to all the provisions of chapter 13 of this title: Provided, That no map or plan as required by section 623 of this title need be filed by the irrigation district for approval by the Secretary of the Interior.
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The Secretary of the Interior in connection with the operations under the reclamation law is authorized to enter into contract to supply water from any project irrigation system for other purposes than irrigation, upon such conditions of delivery, use, and payment as he may deem proper: Provided, That the approval of such contract by the water-users’ association or associations shall have first been obtained: Provided, That no such contract shall be entered into except upon a showing that there is no other practicable source of water supply for the purpose: Provided further, That no water shall be furnished for the uses aforesaid if the delivery of such water shall be detrimental to the water service for such irrigation project, nor to the rights of any prior appropriator: Provided further, That the moneys derived from such contracts shall be covered into the reclamation fund and be placed to the credit of the project from which such water is supplied.
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Whenever a development of power is necessary for the irrigation of lands, under any project undertaken under the said reclamation Act, or an opportunity is afforded for the development of power under any such project, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to lease for a period not exceeding ten years, giving preference to municipal purposes, any surplus power or power privilege, and the moneys derived from such leases shall be covered into the reclamation fund and be placed to the credit of the project from which such power is derived: Provided, That no lease shall be made of such surplus power or power privileges as will impair the efficiency of the irrigation project: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to make such a lease in connection with Rio Grande project in Texas and New Mexico for a longer period not exceeding fifty years, with the approval of the water-users’ association or associations under any such project, organized in conformity with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior in pursuance of section 498 of this title.
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Whenever in carrying out the provisions of the reclamation law, storage or carrying capacity has been or may be provided in excess of the requirements of the lands to be irrigated under any project, the Secretary of the Interior, preserving a first right to lands and entrymen under the project, is authorized, upon such terms as he may determine to be just and equitable, to contract for the impounding, storage, and carriage of water to an extent not exceeding such excess capacity with irrigation systems operating under section 641 of this title, and individuals, corporations, associations, and irrigation districts organized for or engaged in furnishing or in distributing water for irrigation. Water so impounded, stored, or carried under any such contract shall be for the purpose of distribution to individual water users by the party with whom the contract is made: Provided, however, That water so impounded, stored, or carried shall not be used otherwise than as prescribed by law as to lands held in private ownership within Government reclamation projects. In fixing the charges under any such contract for impounding, storing, or carrying water for any irrigation system, corporation, association, district, or individual, as herein provided, the Secretary shall take into consideration the cost of construction and maintenance of the reservoir by which such water is to be impounded or stored and the canal by which it is to be carried, and such charges shall be just and equitable as to water users under the Government project. No irrigation system, district, association, corporation, or individual so contracting shall make any charge for the storage, carriage, or delivery of such water in excess of the charge paid to the United States except to such extent as may be reasonably necessary to cover cost of carriage and delivery of such water through their works.
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In carrying out the provisions of the said reclamation Act, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, upon such terms as may be agreed upon, to cooperate with irrigation districts, water-users’ associations, corporations, entrymen, or water users for the construction or use of such reservoirs, canals, or ditches as may be advantageously used by the Government and irrigation districts, water-users’ associations, corporations, entrymen, or water users for impounding, delivering, and carrying water for irrigation purposes: Provided, That the title to and management of the works so constructed shall be subject to the provisions of section 498 of this title: Provided further, That water shall not be furnished from any such reservoir or delivered through any such canal or ditch to any one landowner in excess of an amount sufficient to irrigate one hundred and sixty acres: Provided, That nothing contained in sections 523 to 525 of this title shall be held or construed as enlarging or attempting to enlarge the right of the United States, under existing law, to control the waters of any stream in any State.
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All moneys or profits as determined by the Secretary heretofore or hereafter derived from the sale or rental of surplus water under the Warren Act of February 21, 1911 (36 Stat. 925) [43 U.S.C. 523 to 525], or from the connection of a new project with an existing project shall be credited to the project or division of the project to which the construction cost has been charged.
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Every patent and water-right certificate issued under this subchapter shall expressly reserve to the United States a prior lien on the land patented or for which water right is certified, together with all water rights appurtenant or belonging thereto, superior to all other liens, claims, or demands whatsoever for the payment of all sums due or to become due to the United States or its successors in control of the irrigation project in connection with such lands and water rights.
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No person shall at any one time or in any manner, except as hereinafter otherwise provided, acquire, own, or hold irrigable land for which entry or water-right application shall have been made under the said reclamation Act of June 17, 1902 and Acts supplementary thereto and amendatory thereof, before final payment in full of all installments of building and betterment charges shall have been made on account of such land in excess of one farm unit as fixed by the Secretary of the Interior as the limit of area per entry of public land or per single ownership of private land for which a water right may be purchased respectively, nor in any case in excess of one hundred and sixty acres, nor shall water be furnished under said Acts nor a water right sold or recognized for such excess; but any such excess land acquired by foreclosure or other process of law, by conveyance in satisfaction of mortgages, by inheritance, or by devise, may be held for five years and no longer after its acquisition, and water may be temporarily furnished during that time; and every excess holding prohibited as aforesaid shall be forfeited to the United States by proceedings instituted by the Attorney General for that purpose in any court of competent jurisdiction. The above provision shall be recited in every patent and water-right certificate issued by the United States under the provisions of this subchapter.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to designate such bonded fiscal agents or officers of the Reclamation Service as he may deem advisable on each reclamation project, to whom shall be paid all sums due on reclamation entries or water rights, and the officials so designated shall keep a record for the information of the public of the sums paid and the amount due at any time on account of any entry made or water right purchased under the reclamation Act; and the Secretary of the Interior shall make provision for furnishing copies of duly authenticated records of entries upon payment of reasonable fees which copies shall be admissible in evidence, as are copies authenticated under section eight hundred and eighty-eight1 of the Revised Statutes.
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The Secretary of the Interior may in connection with irrigation projects under the reclamation Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in each case, survey and subdivide the same into town lots, with appropriate reservations for public purposes: Provided, That, whenever, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, it shall be advisable for the public interest, he may dispose of town sites in excess of one hundred and sixty acres.
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The lots so surveyed shall be appraised under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior and sold under his direction at not less than their appraised value at public auction to the highest bidders, from time to time, for cash, and the lots offered for sale and not disposed of may afterwards be sold at not less than the appraised value under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. Reclamation funds may be used to defray the necessary expenses of appraisement and sale, and the proceeds of such sales shall be covered into the reclamation fund.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, whenever he may deem it necessary, to reappraise all unsold lots within town sites on projects under the reclamation Act heretofore or hereafter appraised under the provisions of sections 562 and 563 of this title; and thereafter to proceed with the sale of such town lots in accordance with said sections.
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In the sale of town lots under the provisions of sections 562 and 563 of this title the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, require payments for such town lots in full at time of sale or in annual installments, not exceeding five, with interest at the rate of 6 per centum per annum on deferred payments.
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The public reservations in such town sites shall be improved and maintained by the town authorities at the expense of the town; and upon the organization thereof as municipal corporations the said reservations shall be conveyed to such corporations by the Secretary of the Interior, subject to the condition that they shall be used forever for public purposes.
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The Secretary of the Interior shall, in accordance with the provisions of the reclamation Act, provide for water rights in amount he may deem necessary for the towns established as provided, in sections 561, 562 and 566 of this title, and may enter into contract with the proper authorities of such towns, and other towns or cities on or in the immediate vicinity of irrigation projects, which shall have a water right from the same source as that of said project for the delivery of such water supply to some convenient point, and for the payment into the reclamation fund of charges for the same to be paid by such towns or cities, which charges shall not be less nor upon terms more favorable than those fixed by the Secretary of the Interior for the irrigation project from which the water is taken.
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(c) For the purpose of carrying out and effecting the objects of this section the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter into a contract with the organization formed by the owners of the lands irrigated within said project or project unit pursuant to section 498 of this title, stipulating and providing that the organization will maintain and use such of the lands so reserved for the purposes prescribed in this section as such organization may desire, and that upon failure to so maintain and use such lands, or in the event that same shall be permitted to be used or occupied for other purposes than those stipulated in this section, the control of the lands shall revert to the United States.
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(d) Any of such lands not contracted for in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) of this section within ten years from the time water is available for the same, or sooner, if the Secretary of the Interior may deem it desirable, shall be disposed of in accordance with the public land laws applicable thereto, and the proceeds from the disposition of lands reverting to the United States under the provisions of this section, and from sales of water rights, shall be covered into the reclamation fund and placed to the credit of the project wherein the lands are situate.
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The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, upon application by the proper officers of a school district located wholly or in part within the boundaries of a project of the United States Reclamation Service, to issue patent conveying to such district such unappropriated undisposed of lands, not exceeding six acres in area, within any Government reclamation town site situated within such school district as, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, are necessary for use by said district for school buildings and grounds: Provided, That if any land so conveyed cease entirely to be used for school purposes title thereto shall revert to and revest in the United States.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to appraise, and sell, at public auction, to the highest bidder, from time to time, under such terms as to time of payment as he may require, but in no event for any longer period than five years, any or all of the unplatted portions of Government town sites created under the Act of April 16, 1906 (34 Stat. 116), on any irrigation project constructed under the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), or Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto: Provided, That any land so offered for sale and not disposed of may afterwards be sold, at not less than the appraised value, at private sale, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. Patents made in pursuance of such sale shall convey all the right, title, and interest of the United States in or to the land so sold.
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The net proceeds of such sales after deducting all expenditures on account of such lands, and the project construction charge, for the irrigable area of the lands so sold where irrigation or drainage works have been constructed or are proposed to be constructed, shall be disposed of as provided in section 501 of this title. Where the project construction charge shall not have been fixed at the date of any such sale, same shall be estimated by the Secretary of the Interior.
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Reclamation funds are authorized to be appropriated for use in defraying the necessary expenses of appraisement and sale of the lands authorized to be sold under section 571 of this title, and the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to perform any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as, in his opinion, may be necessary and proper for carrying out the purposes of sections 571 to 573 of this title.
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For the purpose of avoiding an unduly high operation and maintenance assessment in any one year and to keep the operation and maintenance charges in connection with the Arrowrock Division of the Boise reclamation project within the ability of the water users to pay, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to allow the irrigation districts of the said Arrowrock Division and the irrigation districts ditch companies, and water users who have assumed obligations to pay proportionate parts of the estimated cost of the operation and maintenance of the Arrowrock Reservoir, to pay the costs, as determined conclusively by said Secretary, incurred in the repair, resurfacing, and improvement of the Arrowrock Dam and in increasing the height thereof (to provide additional capacity to offset past and, to some extent, future losses of capacity resulting from the deposit of silt in the said reservoir) in twenty annual installments instead of requiring the payment of all of such operation and maintenance costs in one year as provided in section 492 of this title: Provided, That such costs, for the purpose of any amendatory contracts affecting the construction charges of Arrowrock Dam that may be entered into as authorized by subchapter X of this chapter, may, in the discretion of the Secretary, be treated as part of the construction charges of said dam, and as payable in the same manner as such charges.
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For the purpose of irrigation and reclamation of arid lands, for controlling floods, improving navigation, regulating the flow of the South Fork of the Flathead River, for the generation of electric energy, and for other beneficial uses primarily in the State of Montana but also in downstream areas, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to proceed as soon as practicable with the construction, operation, and maintenance of the proposed Hungry Horse Dam (including facilities for generating electric energy) on the South Fork of the Flathead River, Flathead County, Montana, to such a height as may be necessary to impound not less than one million acre-feet of water. The Hungry Horse project shall be subject to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto).
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain under the provisions of the Federal reclamation laws (Act June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), such additional works as he may deem necessary for irrigation purposes. Such irrigation works may be undertaken only after a report and findings thereon have been made by the Secretary of the Interior as provided in such Federal reclamation laws; and, within the limits of the water users’ repayment ability, such report may be predicated on allocation to irrigation of an appropriate portion of the cost of constructing said dam and reservoir. Said dam and reservoir and said irrigation works may be utilized for irrigation purposes only pursuant to the provisions of said Federal reclamation laws.
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King Hill project, Idaho, shall be subject to the reclamation Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, and all Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, so far as applicable and consistent with contract made prior to July 1, 1918, between the United States and King Hill irrigation district: Provided, That for the purposes of issuing patent to lands reclaimed, the reclamation effected by the operations of the United States Reclamation Service may be considered by the Secretary of the Interior as equivalent to reclamation effected by the State of Idaho, under section 641 of this title.
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Lands within and in the vicinity of the ceded portion of the Wind River or Shoshone Reservation, and included in the Riverton project, Wyoming, shall be subject to all the charges, terms, conditions, provisions, and limitations of the Reclamation Act and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, and suitable provision shall be made by the Secretary of the Interior in fixing the charges to provide for reimbursement of the entire expenditure in accordance with the reclamation law and other laws applicable to said lands.
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Compensation to the individual Indian owners of the allotted lands within the area described in section 597a of this title shall be made from moneys appropriated for the construction of the Bull Lake Dam and Reservoir at the appraised value of the easements: Provided, That should any individual Indian not agree to accept the appraised value of the easement as it affects his land, the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is, authorized to acquire such easement by condemnation proceedings.
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Whenever a development of power is necessary for the irrigation of lands under the Salt River reclamation project, Arizona, or an opportunity is afforded for the development of power under said project, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, giving preference to municipal purposes, to enter into contracts for a period not exceeding fifty years for the sale of any surplus power so developed, and the money derived from such sales shall be placed to the credit of said project for disposal as provided in the contract between the United States of America and the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, approved September 6, 1917: Provided, That no contract shall be made for the sale of such surplus power which will impair the efficiency of said project: Provided, however, That no such contract shall be made without the approval of the legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district which has contracted with the United States to repay the cost of said project: Provided further, That the charge for power may be readjusted at the end of five-, ten-, or twenty-year periods after the beginning of any contract for the sale of power in a manner to be described in the contract.
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No contractor shall secure a right to the use of water from American Falls Reservoir, Minidoka project, except under a contract containing the provision that the contractor shall, as a part of the construction cost, pay interest at the rate of six per centum per annum upon the contractor’s proper proportionate share, as found by the Secretary of the Interior, of the moneys advanced by the United States on account of the construction of said reservoir prior to the date of the contract.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct a Federal reclamation project for the irrigation of the lands of the Arch Hurley Conservancy District in New Mexico under the Federal reclamation laws: Provided, That construction work is not to be initiated on said irrigation project until (a) the project shall have been found to be feasible under section 412 of this title, but the project may be found to be financially feasible if the Secretary of the Interior finds that the amount to be expended from the reclamation fund can be repaid by the District, and further that the amount of money to be expended from the reclamation fund, plus the amount of money which has been made available from other sources (for the estimated period of construction), equals the estimated cost of construction; (b) a contract shall have been executed with an irrigation or conservation district embracing the land to be irrigated under said project, which contract shall obligate the contracting district to repay the cost of construction of said project met by expenditure of moneys from the reclamation fund in forty equal annual installments, without interest; (c) contracts shall have been made with each owner of more than one hundred and sixty irrigable acres under said project, by which he, his successors, and assigns shall be obligated to sell all of his land in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigable acres at or below prices fixed by the Secretary of the Interior and within the time to be fixed by said Secretary, no water to be furnished to the land of any such large landowner refusing or failing to execute such contract.
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For the purposes of irrigating land, delivering water for industrial and municipal use, controlling floods, providing recreation and fish and wildlife benefits, and controlling and catching silt, the Secretary of the Interior, acting pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Canadian River reclamation project, Texas, described in the report of the Commissioner of Reclamation approved by the Secretary May 3, 1950, entitled “Plan for Development, Canadian River Project, Texas”, Project Planning Report Number 5–12.22–1, at an estimated cost of $86,656,000, the impounding works whereof shall be located at a suitable site on the Canadian River in that area known as the Panhandle of Texas. In addition to the impounding works, the project shall include such main canals, pumping plants, distribution and drainage systems, and other works as are necessary to accomplish the purposes of sections 600b and 600c of this title. The use by the project of waters arising in Ute and Pajarito Creeks, New Mexico, shall be only such use as does not conflict with use, present or potential, of such waters for beneficial consumptive purposes in New Mexico.
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(b) Actual construction of the project herein authorized shall not be commenced, and no construction contract awarded therefor, until (1) the Congress shall have consented to the interstate compact between the States of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas agreed upon by the Canadian River Compact Commission at Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 6, 1950, in conformity with Public Law 491, Eighty-first Congress, and (2) repayment of that portion of the actual cost of constructing the project which is allocated to municipal and industrial water supply and of interest on the unamortized balance thereof at a rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of the Treasury) equal to the average rate paid by the United States on its long-term loans outstanding at the time the repayment contract is negotiated minus the amount of such net revenues as may be derived from temporary water supply contracts or from other sources prior to the close of the repayment period, shall have been assured by a contract satisfactory to the Secretary, with one central repayment contract organization, the term of which shall not exceed fifty years from the date of completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project as determined by the Secretary.
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(c) The repayment contract shall provide, among other things, (1) that the holder thereof shall have a first right, to which right the rights of the holders of any other type of contract shall be subordinate, to a stated share or quantity of the project’s available water supply for use by its constituent industrial and municipal water users during the repayment period and a permanent right to such share or quantity thereafter subject to payment of such costs as may be incurred by the United States in its operation and maintenance of any part of the project works; (2) that, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the care, operation, and maintenance of such portions of the pipeline and related facilities as are used solely for delivering such water to the contract holder and its constituent organizations shall, as soon as is practicable after completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project, pass to the contract holder or to an organization which is designated by it for that purpose and which is satisfactory to the Secretary; and (3) that title to such portions of the pipeline and related facilities shall in like manner pass to the contract holder or its designee or designees upon payment to the United States of all obligations arising under sections 600b and 600c of this title or incurred in connection with the project.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to investigate, plan, construct, operate and maintain, or otherwise provide for basic public outdoor recreation facilities at the Sanford Reservoir area, Canadian Federal reclamation project, to acquire or otherwise include within the project area such adjacent lands or interests therein as are necessary for present or future public recreation use, and to provide for the public use and enjoyment of project lands, facilities, and water areas in a manner coordinated with other project purposes: Provided, That this section shall not provide the Secretary with a basis for allocation to recreation of water, reservoir capacity, or joint project costs of the Canadian River project nor affect the priority for municipal use of water stored in the Sanford Reservoir, or the priority of use for municipal purposes of the capacity of said reservoir. The Secretary is authorized to enter into agreements with Federal agencies or State or local public bodies for the operation, maintenance, or additional development of project lands or facilities, or to dispose of project lands or facilities to Federal agencies or State or local public bodies by lease, transfer, conveyance or exchange upon such terms and conditions as will best promote the development and operation of such lands or facilities in the public interest for recreation purposes. The cost of providing basic recreation facilities shall be nonreimbursable. In carrying out the aforesaid activities the Secretary shall take cognizance of the effect of the fish and wildlife plan approved by the President December 19, 1962, pursuant to sections 600b and 600c of this title in providing facilities at the Canadian River project which have general recreation utility.
Citations to §485a(c)
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For the purpose of providing for United States reclamation projects a feasible and comprehensive plan for an economical and equitable treatment of repayment problems and for variable payments of construction charges which can be met regularly and fully from year to year during periods of decline in agricultural income and unsatisfactory conditions of agriculture as well as during periods of prosperity and good prices for agricultural products, and which will protect adequately the financial interest of the United States in said projects, obligations to pay construction charges may be revised or undertaken pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter.
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(b) The Secretary is authorized, subject to the provisions of this subsection to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation as he deems necessary to adjust such installments to amounts within the probable ability of the water users to pay. Any such deferment shall be effected only after findings by the Secretary that the installments under consideration probably cannot be paid on their due date without undue burden on the water users, considering the various factors which in the Secretary’s judgment bear on the ability of the water users so to pay.The Secretary may effect the deferments hereunder subject to such conditions and provisions relating to the operation and maintenance of the project involved as he deems to be in the interest of the United States. If, however, any deferments would affect installments to accrue more than twelve months after the action of deferment, they shall be effected only by a formal supplemental contract. Such a contract shall provide by its terms that, it being only an interim solution of the repayment problems dealt with therein, its terms are not, in themselves, to be construed as a criterion of the terms of any amendatory contract that may be negotiated and that any such amendatory contract must be approved by the Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period for the project in question beyond that permitted by the laws applicable to that project, involves no reduction in the total amount payable by the water users, and is not in other respects less advantageous to the Government than the existing contract arrangements. The Secretary shall report to the Congress all deferments granted under this subsection.
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In connection with any contract, relating to construction charges, entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to require such provisions as he deems proper to secure the adoption of proper accounting, to protect the condition of project works and to provide for the proper use thereof, and to protect project lands against deterioration due to improper use of water. Any such contract shall require advance payment of adequate operation and maintenance charges. The Secretary is further authorized, in his discretion, to require such provisions as he deems proper to penalize delinquencies in payments of construction charges or operation and maintenance charges: Provided, That in any event there shall be penalties imposed on account of delinquencies of not less than one-half of 1 per centum per month of the delinquent charge from and after the date when such charge becomes due and payable: Provided further, That any such contract shall require that no water shall be delivered to lands or parties which are in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges, or to lands or parties which are in arrears for more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such lands or parties to the United States or to the organization in which the lands or parties are included, or to any lands or parties included in an organization which is in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges or in arrears more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such organization to the United States.
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(d) Upon receipt of any such request the Secretary shall make a preliminary determination whether the requested land classification or reclassification probably is justified by reason of the conditions of the lands involved and other pertinent conditions of the project, including its contractual relations with the United States.
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(e) If the Secretary finds probable justification and if the advance to the United States hereinafter required is made, he shall undertake as soon as practicable the classification or reclassification of the lands listed in the request, and of any other lands which have been, are, or may be included within the project involved and which in his judgment should be classified or reclassified.
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(h) No modification of any existing obligation to pay construction charges on any project shall be made by reason of any classification or reclassification undertaken pursuant to this section without express authority therefor granted by Congress upon recommendations of the Secretary made in a report under subsection (f) of this section.
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(a) No expenditures for the construction of any new project, new division of a project, or new supplemental works on a project shall be made, nor shall estimates be submitted therefor, by the Secretary until after he has made an investigation thereof and has submitted to the President and to the Congress his report and findings on—(1) the engineering feasibility of the proposed construction;(2) the estimated cost of the proposed construction;(3) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to irrigation and probably be repaid by the water users;(4) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to power and probably be returned to the United States in net power revenues;(5) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes and probably be returned to the United States.If the proposed construction is found by the Secretary to have engineering feasibility and if the repayable and returnable allocations to irrigation, power, and municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes found by the Secretary to be proper, together with any allocation to flood control or navigation made under subsection (b) of this section, equal the total estimated cost of construction as determined by the Secretary, then the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, covered by his findings, shall be deemed authorized and may be undertaken by the Secretary. If all such allocations do not equal said total estimated cost, then said new project, new division, or new supplemental works may be undertaken by the Secretary only after provision therefor has been made by Act of Congress enacted after the Secretary has submitted to the President and the Congress the report and findings involved.
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(b) In connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project there may be allocated to flood control or navigation the part of said total estimated cost which the Secretary may find to be proper. Items for any such allocations made in connection with projects which may be undertaken pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be included in the estimates of appropriations submitted by the Secretary for said projects, and funds for such portions of the projects shall not become available except as directly appropriated or allotted to the Department of the Interior. In connection with the making of such an allocation, the Secretary shall consult with the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of the Army, and may perform any of the necessary investigations or studies under a cooperative agreement with the Secretary of the Army. In the event of such an allocation the Secretary of the Interior shall operate the project for purposes of flood control or navigation, to the extent justified by said allocation therefor.
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(1) The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts to furnish water for municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes: Provided, That any such contract either (A) shall require repayment to the United States, over a period of not to exceed forty years from the year in which water is first delivered for the use of the contracting party, with interest not exceeding the rate of 3½ per centum per annum if the Secretary determines an interest charge to be proper, of an appropriate share as determined by the Secretary of that part of the construction costs allocated by him to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes; or (B) shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, and shall require the payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. Any sale of electric power or lease of power privileges, made by the Secretary in connection with the operation of any project or division of a project, shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in his judgment will produce power revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost, interest on an appropriate share of the construction investment at not less than 3 per centum per annum, and such other fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper: Provided further, That in said sales or leases preference shall be given to municipalities and other public corporations or agencies; and also to cooperatives and other nonprofit organizations financed in whole or in part by loans made pursuant to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 [7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.]. Nothing in this subsection shall be applicable to provisions in existing contracts, made pursuant to law, for the use of power and miscellaneous revenues of a project for the benefit of users of water from such project. The provisions of this subsection respecting the sales of electric power and leases of power privileges shall be an authorization in addition to and alternative to any authority in existing laws related to particular projects and reserve to the Secretary the exclusive authority to develop small conduit hydropower using Bureau of Reclamation facilities and pumped storage hydropower exclusively using Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs. No contract relating to municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes or to electric power or power privileges shall be made unless, in the judgment of the Secretary, it will not impair the efficiency of the project for irrigation purposes.
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(A) When carrying out this subsection, the Secretary shall first offer the lease of power privilege to an irrigation district or water users association operating the applicable transferred conduit, or to the irrigation district or water users association receiving water from the applicable reserved conduit. The Secretary shall determine a reasonable time frame for the irrigation district or water users association to accept or reject a lease of power privilege offer for a small conduit hydropower project.
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(5) Nothing in this subsection shall obligate the Western Area Power Administration, the Bonneville Power Administration, or the Southwestern Power Administration to purchase or market any of the power produced by the facilities covered under this subsection and none of the costs associated with production or delivery of such power shall be assigned to project purposes for inclusion in project rates.
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(6) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or impede the delivery and management of water by Bureau of Reclamation facilities, as water used for conduit hydropower generation shall be deemed incidental to use of water for the original project purposes. Lease of power privilege shall be made only when, in the judgment of the Secretary, the exercise of the lease will not be incompatible with the purposes of the project or division involved, nor shall it create any unmitigated financial or physical impacts to the project or division involved. The Secretary shall notify and consult with the irrigation district or water users association operating the transferred conduit before offering the lease of power privilege and shall prescribe terms and conditions that will adequately protect the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and other interests of the United States and the project or division involved.
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(7) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or affect any existing agreements for the development of conduit hydropower projects or disposition of revenues.
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(8) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or affect any existing preliminary permit, license, or exemption issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under Part I of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 792 et seq.) or any project for which an application was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before August 9, 2013, and is still pending.
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(D) The term “transferred conduit” means any conduit that is included in project works the care, operation, and maintenance of which has been transferred to a legally organized water users association or irrigation district.
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(d) No water may be delivered for irrigation of lands in connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project until an organization, satisfactory in form and powers to the Secretary, has entered into a repayment contract with the United States, in a form satisfactory to the Secretary, providing among other things—(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(e) In lieu of entering into a repayment contract pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section to cover that part of the cost of the construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation, the Secretary, in his discretion, may enter into either short- or long-term contracts to furnish water for irrigation purposes. Each such contract shall be for such period, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, due consideration being given to that part of the cost of construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation; and shall require payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. In the event such contracts are made for furnishing water for irrigation purposes, the costs of any irrigation water distribution works constructed by the United States in connection with the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, shall be covered by a repayment contract entered into pursuant to said subsection (d).
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(3) credit each year to every party which has entered into or which shall enter into a long-term contract pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title so much of the amount paid by said party on or before the due date as is in excess of the share of the operation and maintenance costs of the project which the Secretary finds is properly chargeable to that party. Credit for payments heretofore made under any such contract shall be established by the Secretary as soon after July 2, 1956 as it is feasible for him to do so. After the sum of such credits is equal to the amount which would have been for repayment by the party if a repayment contract under subsection (d) of section 485h of this title had been entered into, which amount shall be established by the Secretary upon completion of the project concerned or as far in advance thereof as is feasible, no construction component shall be included in any charges made for the furnishing of water to the contracting party and any charges theretofore fixed by contract or otherwise shall be reduced accordingly;
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(4) provide that the other party to any contract entered into pursuant to subsection (d) of section 485h of this title or to any long-term contract entered into pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title shall, during the term of the contract and of any renewal thereof and subject to fulfillment of all obligations thereunder, have a first right (to which right the rights of the holders of any other type of irrigation water contract shall be subordinate) to a stated share or quantity of the project’s available water supply for beneficial use on the irrigable lands within the boundaries of, or owned by, the party and a permanent right to such share or quantity upon completion of payment of the amount assigned for ultimate return by the party subject to payment of an appropriate share of such costs, if any, as may thereafter be incurred by the United States in its operation and maintenance of the project works; and1
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(6) include a reasonable construction component in the rates set out in any long-term contract hereafter entered into under subsection (e) of section 485h of this title prior to amortization of that part of the cost of constructing the project which is assigned to be repaid by the contracting party.
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In addition to the construction charge, every water-right applicant, entryman, or landowner under or upon a reclamation project shall also pay, whenever water service is available for the irrigation of his land, an operation and maintenance charge based upon the total cost of operation and maintenance of the project, or each separate unit thereof, and such charge shall be made for each acre-foot of water delivered; but each acre of irrigable land, whether irrigated or not, shall be charged with a minimum operation and maintenance charge based upon the charge for delivery of not less than one acre-foot of water. If the total amount of operation and maintenance charges and penalties collected for any one irrigation season on any project shall exceed the cost of operation and maintenance of the project during that irrigation season, the balance shall be applied to a reduction of the charge on the project for the next irrigation season, and any deficit incurred may likewise be added to the charge for the next irrigation season.
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All operation and maintenance charges upon projects existing prior to December 5, 1924, shall become due and payable on the date fixed for each project by the Secretary of the Interior, and if such charge is paid on or before the date when due there shall be a discount of 5 per centum of such charge.
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Whenever any legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district shall so request, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to transfer to such water-users’ association or irrigation district the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as he may prescribe.
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Whenever an irrigation district, municipality, or water users’ organization assumes operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply pursuant to a contract entered into with the United States in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Secretary of the Interior may transfer to said district, municipality, or organization title to movable property which has been purchased with funds advanced by the district, municipality, or organization or which, in the case of property purchased with appropriated funds, is necessary to the operation and maintenance of such works and the value of which is to be repaid under a contract with the district, municipality, or organization. In order to encourage the assumption by irrigation districts, municipalities, and water users’ organizations of the operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply, the Secretary is authorized to use appropriated funds available for the project involved to acquire movable property for transfer under the terms and conditions hereinbefore provided, at the time operation and maintenance is assumed.
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Whenever two-thirds of the irrigable area of any project, or division of a project, shall be covered by water-right contracts between the water users and the United States, said project shall be required, as a condition precedent to receiving the benefits of sections 371, 376, 377, 412, 417, 433, 438,1 462, 463,1 466, 467,1 473,1 474,1 478, 493, 494, 500, 501, and 526 of this title to take over, through a legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district, the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and thereafter the United States, in its relation to said project, shall deal with a water users’ association or irrigation district, and when the water users assume control of a project, the operation and maintenance charges for the year then current shall be covered into the construction account to be repaid as part of the construction repayments.
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Whenever the water users take over the care, operation, and maintenance of a project, or a division of a project, the total accumulated net profits, as determined by the Secretary, derived from the operation of project power plants, leasing of project grazing and farm lands, and the sale or use of town sites shall be credited to the construction charge of the project, or a division thereof, and thereafter the net profits from such sources may be used by the water users to be credited annually, first, on account of project construction charge, second, on account of project operation and maintenance charge, and third, as the water users may direct. No distribution to individual water users shall be made out of any such profits before all obligations to the Government shall have been fully paid.
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In order to assure continuous operation of all projects and project facilities governed by the Federal reclamation law (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), including any project and facilities constructed with funds provided by the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] or with funds provided by the Distribution System Loans Act (Act of May 14, 1956, 69 Stat. 244, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), there is hereby authorized to be appropriated from the reclamation fund an emergency fund which shall be available for defraying expenses which the Commissioner of Reclamation determines are required to be incurred because of unusual or emergency conditions.
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Expenditures of funds hereafter specifically appropriated for rehabilitation and betterment of any project constructed under authority of the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] and of irrigation systems on projects governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), shall be made only after the organizations concerned shall have obligated themselves for the return thereof, in installments fixed in accordance with their ability to pay, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior in the light of their outstanding repayment obligations, and which shall, to the fullest practicable extent, be scheduled for return with their construction charge installments or otherwise scheduled as he shall determine: Provided, That repayment of such loans made for small reclamation projects shall include interest in accordance with the provisions of said Small Reclamation Projects Act. No such determination of the Secretary of the Interior shall become effective until the expiration of sixty days after it has been submitted to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; except that, any such determination may become effective prior to the expiration of such sixty days in any case in which each such committee approves an earlier date and notifies the Secretary in writing, of such approval: Provided, That when Congress is not in session the Secretary’s determination, if accompanied by a finding by the Secretary that substantial hardship to the water users concerned or substantial further injury to the project works will result, shall become effective when the chairman and ranking minority member of each such committee shall file with the Secretary their written approval of said findings. The term “rehabilitation and betterment”, as used in this section, shall mean maintenance, including replacements, which cannot be financed currently, as otherwise contemplated by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of operation and maintenance costs, but shall not include construction, the costs of which are returnable, in whole or in part, through “construction charges” as that term is defined in section 485a(d) of this title. Such rehabilitation and betterment work may be performed by contract, by force-account, or, notwithstanding any other law and subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the organization concerned whereby such organization shall perform such work.
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(i) Capitalized facilities, buildings, structures, project features, power production equipment, recreation facilities, or quarters.
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Except as provided in section 509b of this title, construction authorized by this subchapter shall be for the purposes of dam safety and not for the specific purposes of providing additional conservation storage capacity or of developing benefits over and above those provided by the original dams and reservoirs. Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to reduce the amount of project costs allocated to reimbursable purposes heretofore authorized.
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(a) Costs heretofore or hereafter incurred in the modification of structures under this subchapter, the cause of which results from age and normal deterioration of the structure or from nonperformance of reasonable and normal maintenance of the structure by the operating entity shall be considered as project costs and will be allocated to the purposes for which the structure was authorized initially to be constructed and will be reimbursable as provided by existing law.
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(1) Fifteen percent of such costs shall be allocated to the authorized purposes of the structure, except that in the case of Jackson Lake Dam, Minidoka Project, Idaho-Wyoming, such costs shall be allocated in accordance with the allocation of operation and maintenance charges.
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(3) Costs allocated to recreation or fish and wildlife enhancement shall be reimbursed in accordance with the Federal Water Project Recreation Act (79 Stat. 213), as amended [16 U.S.C. 460l–12 et seq.].
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(4) Costs allocated to the purpose of municipal, industrial, and miscellaneous water service, commercial power, and the portion of recreation and fish and wildlife enhancement costs reimbursable under the Federal Water Project Recreation Act [16 U.S.C. 460l–12 et seq.], shall be repaid within 50 years with interest. The interest rate used shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, taking into consideration average market yields on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States with remaining periods to maturity comparable to the applicable reimbursement period during the month preceding the fiscal year in which the costs are incurred. To the extent that more than one interest rate is determined pursuant to the preceding sentence, the Secretary of the Treasury shall establish an interest rate at the weighted average of the rates so determined.
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(d) The Secretary is authorized to negotiate appropriate contracts with project beneficiaries providing for the return of reimbursable costs under this subchapter: Provided, however, That no contract entered into pursuant to this subchapter shall be deemed to be a new or amended contract for the purposes of section 390cc(a) of this title.
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There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 1979 and ensuing fiscal years such sums as may be necessary and, effective October 1, 1983, not to exceed an additional $650,000,000 (October 1, 1983, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2000, not to exceed an additional $95,000,000 (October 1, 2000, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2001, not to exceed an additional $32,000,000 (October 1, 2001, price levels), and, effective October 1, 2003, not to exceed an additional $540,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), and effective October 1, 2015, not to exceed an additional $1,100,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in construction costs as indicated by engineering cost indexes applicable to the types of construction involved herein, to carry out the provisions of this subchapter to remain available until expended if so provided by the appropriations Act: Provided, That no funds exceeding $20,000,000 (October 1, 2003, price levels), as adjusted to reflect any ordinary fluctuations in construction costs indicated by applicable engineering cost indexes, shall be obligated for carrying out actual construction to modify an existing dam under authority of this subchapter prior to 30 calendar days from the date that the Secretary has transmitted a report on such existing dam to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate. The report required to be submitted by this section will consist of a finding by the Secretary of the Interior to the effect that modifications are required to be made to insure the safety of an existing dam. Such finding shall be accompanied by a technical report containing information on the need for structural modification, the corrective action deemed to be required, alternative solutions to structural modification that were considered, the estimated cost of needed modifications, and environmental impacts if any resulting from the implementation of the recommended plan of modification. For modification expenditures between $1,800,000 and $20,000,000 (October 1, 2015, price levels), the Secretary of the Interior shall, at least 30 days before the date on which the funds are expended, submit written notice of the expenditures to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate that provides a summary of the project, the cost of the project, and any alternatives that were considered.
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(a) On identifying a Bureau of Reclamation facility for modification, the Secretary shall provide to the project beneficiaries written notice—(1) describing the need for the modification and the process for identifying and implementing the modification; and(2) summarizing the administrative and legal requirements relating to the modification.
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(1) provide project beneficiaries an opportunity to consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on the planning, design, and construction of the proposed modification; and
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(2) in consultation with project beneficiaries, develop and provide timeframes for the consultation described in paragraph (1).
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(1) Prior to submitting the reports required under section 509 of this title, the Secretary shall consider any alternative submitted in writing, in accordance with the timeframes established under subsection (b), by a project beneficiary that has elected to consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on a modification.
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Notwithstanding section 507 of this title, if the Secretary, in her judgment, determines that additional project benefits, including but not limited to additional conservation storage capacity, are necessary and in the interests of the United States and the project and are feasible and not inconsistent with the purposes of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to develop additional project benefits through the construction of new or supplementary works on a project in conjunction with the Secretary’s activities under section 506 of this title and subject to the conditions described in the feasibility study, provided a cost share agreement related to the additional project benefits is reached among non-Federal and Federal funding participants and the costs associated with developing the additional project benefits are allocated exclusively among beneficiaries of the additional project benefits and repaid consistent with all provisions of Federal Reclamation law (the Act of June 17, 1902, 43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.) and acts supplemental to and amendatory of that Act.
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(2) The term “project facility” means any part or incidental feature of a project, excluding high- and significant-hazard dams, constructed under the Federal reclamation law (the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, chapter 1093), and Acts supplemental to and amendatory of that Act (43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.)1.
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(A) intended to ensure the continued safe, dependable, and reliable delivery of authorized project benefits; and
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(1) For reserved works, costs incurred by the Secretary in conducting extraordinary operation and maintenance work will be allocated to the authorized reimbursable purposes of the project and shall be repaid within 50 years, with interest, from the year in which work undertaken pursuant to this subchapter is substantially complete.
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(2) For transferred works, the Secretary is authorized to advance the costs incurred by the transferred works operating entity in conducting extraordinary operation and maintenance work and negotiate appropriate 50-year repayment contracts with project beneficiaries providing for the return of reimbursable costs, with interest, under this subsection: Provided, however, That no contract entered into pursuant to this subchapter shall be deemed to be a new or amended contract for the purposes of section 390cc(a) of this title.
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(3) The interest rate used for computing interest on work in progress and interest on the unpaid balance of the reimbursable costs of extraordinary operation and maintenance work authorized by this subchapter shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which extraordinary operation and maintenance work is commenced, on the basis of average market yields on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States with the remaining periods of maturity comparable to the applicable reimbursement period of the project, adjusted to the nearest ⅛ of 1 percent on the unamortized balance of any portion of the loan.
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(1) There is established in the general fund of the Treasury a special account, to be known as the “Aging Infrastructure Account” (referred to in this subsection as the “Account”), to provide funds to, and provide for the extended repayment of the funds by, a transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs for the conduct of extraordinary operation and maintenance work at a project facility, which shall consist of—(A) any amounts that are specifically appropriated to the Account under section 510d of this title; and(B) any amounts deposited in the Account under paragraph (3)(B).
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(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (6), the Secretary may expend amounts in the Account to fund and provide for extended repayment of the funds for eligible projects identified in a report submitted under paragraph (5)(B).
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(A) The Secretary may not expend amounts under paragraph (2) with respect to an eligible project described in that paragraph unless the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs has entered into a contract to repay the amounts under subsection (b)(2).
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(B) Amounts repaid by a transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs receiving funds under a repayment contract entered into under this subsection shall be deposited in the Account and shall be available to the Secretary for expenditure, subject to paragraph (6), in accordance with this subsection, and without further appropriation.
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(A) Beginning with fiscal year 2022, not less than once per fiscal year, the Secretary shall accept, during an application period established by the Secretary, applications from transferred works operating entities or project beneficiaries responsible for payment of reimbursable costs for funds and extended repayment for eligible projects.
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(i) qualifies as an extraordinary operation and maintenance work under this section;(ii) is for the major, non-recurring maintenance of a mission-critical asset; and(iii) is not eligible to be carried out or funded under the repayment provisions of section 508(c) of this title.
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(i) a description of the project for which the funds are requested;
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(iii) the repayment period requested by the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs;
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(vi) the financial records of the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs.
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(i) to determine whether the project is eligible for funds and an extended repayment period under this subsection;
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(ii) to determine if the project has been identified by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of the major rehabilitation and replacement of a project facility; and
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(I) the project; and
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(II) repayment capability of the transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs.
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(A) describes the results of the Secretary’s review of each application under paragraph (4)(D), including a determination of whether the project is eligible;
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(B) identifies each project eligible for funds and extended repayment under this subsection;
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(C) with respect to each eligible project identified under subparagraph (B), includes—(i) a description of—(I) the eligible project;(II) the anticipated cost and duration of the eligible project;(III) any remaining engineering or environmental compliance that is required before the eligible project commences;(ii) an analysis of—(I) the repayment period proposed in the application; and(II) if the Secretary recommends a minimum necessary repayment period that is different than the repayment period proposed in the application, the minimum necessary repayment period recommended by the Secretary; and(iii) an analysis of alternative non-Federal funding options;
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(I) the eligible project;
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(II) the anticipated cost and duration of the eligible project;
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(III) any remaining engineering or environmental compliance that is required before the eligible project commences;
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The Secretary of the Interior in connection with the operations under the reclamation law is authorized to enter into contract to supply water from any project irrigation system for other purposes than irrigation, upon such conditions of delivery, use, and payment as he may deem proper: Provided, That the approval of such contract by the water-users’ association or associations shall have first been obtained: Provided, That no such contract shall be entered into except upon a showing that there is no other practicable source of water supply for the purpose: Provided further, That no water shall be furnished for the uses aforesaid if the delivery of such water shall be detrimental to the water service for such irrigation project, nor to the rights of any prior appropriator: Provided further, That the moneys derived from such contracts shall be covered into the reclamation fund and be placed to the credit of the project from which such water is supplied.
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Whenever a development of power is necessary for the irrigation of lands, under any project undertaken under the said reclamation Act, or an opportunity is afforded for the development of power under any such project, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to lease for a period not exceeding ten years, giving preference to municipal purposes, any surplus power or power privilege, and the moneys derived from such leases shall be covered into the reclamation fund and be placed to the credit of the project from which such power is derived: Provided, That no lease shall be made of such surplus power or power privileges as will impair the efficiency of the irrigation project: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to make such a lease in connection with Rio Grande project in Texas and New Mexico for a longer period not exceeding fifty years, with the approval of the water-users’ association or associations under any such project, organized in conformity with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior in pursuance of section 498 of this title.
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Whenever in carrying out the provisions of the reclamation law, storage or carrying capacity has been or may be provided in excess of the requirements of the lands to be irrigated under any project, the Secretary of the Interior, preserving a first right to lands and entrymen under the project, is authorized, upon such terms as he may determine to be just and equitable, to contract for the impounding, storage, and carriage of water to an extent not exceeding such excess capacity with irrigation systems operating under section 641 of this title, and individuals, corporations, associations, and irrigation districts organized for or engaged in furnishing or in distributing water for irrigation. Water so impounded, stored, or carried under any such contract shall be for the purpose of distribution to individual water users by the party with whom the contract is made: Provided, however, That water so impounded, stored, or carried shall not be used otherwise than as prescribed by law as to lands held in private ownership within Government reclamation projects. In fixing the charges under any such contract for impounding, storing, or carrying water for any irrigation system, corporation, association, district, or individual, as herein provided, the Secretary shall take into consideration the cost of construction and maintenance of the reservoir by which such water is to be impounded or stored and the canal by which it is to be carried, and such charges shall be just and equitable as to water users under the Government project. No irrigation system, district, association, corporation, or individual so contracting shall make any charge for the storage, carriage, or delivery of such water in excess of the charge paid to the United States except to such extent as may be reasonably necessary to cover cost of carriage and delivery of such water through their works.
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All moneys or profits as determined by the Secretary heretofore or hereafter derived from the sale or rental of surplus water under the Warren Act of February 21, 1911 (36 Stat. 925) [43 U.S.C. 523 to 525], or from the connection of a new project with an existing project shall be credited to the project or division of the project to which the construction cost has been charged.
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Every patent and water-right certificate issued under this subchapter shall expressly reserve to the United States a prior lien on the land patented or for which water right is certified, together with all water rights appurtenant or belonging thereto, superior to all other liens, claims, or demands whatsoever for the payment of all sums due or to become due to the United States or its successors in control of the irrigation project in connection with such lands and water rights.
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Upon full and final payment being made of all amounts due on account of the building and betterment charges to the United States or its successors in control of the project, the United States or its successors, as the case may be, shall issue upon request a certificate certifying that payment of the building and betterment charges in full has been made and that the lien upon the land has been so far satisfied and is no longer of any force or effect except the lien for annual charges for operation and maintenance.
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Any desert-land entryman whose desert-land entry has been embraced within the exterior limits of any land withdrawal or irrigation project under the Act of June 17, 1902, known as the reclamation Act, and who may have obtained a water supply for the land embraced in any such desert-land entry from the reclamation project by the purchase of a water-right certificate, may at any time after having complied with the provisions of the law applicable to such lands and upon proof of the cultivation and reclamation of the land to the extent required by the reclamation Act for homestead entrymen, submit proof of such compliance, which proof, if found regular and satisfactory, shall entitle the entryman to a patent and a final water-right certificate under the same terms and conditions as required of homestead entrymen under the Act entitled “An Act providing for patents on reclamation entries, and for other purposes, approved August ninth, nineteen hundred and twelve [43 U.S.C. 541 et seq.].”1
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The Secretary of the Interior may in connection with irrigation projects under the reclamation Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in each case, survey and subdivide the same into town lots, with appropriate reservations for public purposes: Provided, That, whenever, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, it shall be advisable for the public interest, he may dispose of town sites in excess of one hundred and sixty acres.
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The Secretary of the Interior shall, in accordance with the provisions of the reclamation Act, provide for water rights in amount he may deem necessary for the towns established as provided, in sections 561, 562 and 566 of this title, and may enter into contract with the proper authorities of such towns, and other towns or cities on or in the immediate vicinity of irrigation projects, which shall have a water right from the same source as that of said project for the delivery of such water supply to some convenient point, and for the payment into the reclamation fund of charges for the same to be paid by such towns or cities, which charges shall not be less nor upon terms more favorable than those fixed by the Secretary of the Interior for the irrigation project from which the water is taken.
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(b) Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained in this section every such tract of land so set apart shall be supplied with water from the Government irrigation system, the cost thereof to be charged to the remaining lands of the project as a part of the construction charge of such project, and shall be maintained and used in perpetuity by the people upon said reclaimed lands for a pleasure park, public playground, and community center.
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(c) For the purpose of carrying out and effecting the objects of this section the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter into a contract with the organization formed by the owners of the lands irrigated within said project or project unit pursuant to section 498 of this title, stipulating and providing that the organization will maintain and use such of the lands so reserved for the purposes prescribed in this section as such organization may desire, and that upon failure to so maintain and use such lands, or in the event that same shall be permitted to be used or occupied for other purposes than those stipulated in this section, the control of the lands shall revert to the United States.
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(d) Any of such lands not contracted for in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) of this section within ten years from the time water is available for the same, or sooner, if the Secretary of the Interior may deem it desirable, shall be disposed of in accordance with the public land laws applicable thereto, and the proceeds from the disposition of lands reverting to the United States under the provisions of this section, and from sales of water rights, shall be covered into the reclamation fund and placed to the credit of the project wherein the lands are situate.
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The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, upon application by the proper officers of a school district located wholly or in part within the boundaries of a project of the United States Reclamation Service, to issue patent conveying to such district such unappropriated undisposed of lands, not exceeding six acres in area, within any Government reclamation town site situated within such school district as, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, are necessary for use by said district for school buildings and grounds: Provided, That if any land so conveyed cease entirely to be used for school purposes title thereto shall revert to and revest in the United States.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to appraise, and sell, at public auction, to the highest bidder, from time to time, under such terms as to time of payment as he may require, but in no event for any longer period than five years, any or all of the unplatted portions of Government town sites created under the Act of April 16, 1906 (34 Stat. 116), on any irrigation project constructed under the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), or Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto: Provided, That any land so offered for sale and not disposed of may afterwards be sold, at not less than the appraised value, at private sale, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. Patents made in pursuance of such sale shall convey all the right, title, and interest of the United States in or to the land so sold.
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The net proceeds of such sales after deducting all expenditures on account of such lands, and the project construction charge, for the irrigable area of the lands so sold where irrigation or drainage works have been constructed or are proposed to be constructed, shall be disposed of as provided in section 501 of this title. Where the project construction charge shall not have been fixed at the date of any such sale, same shall be estimated by the Secretary of the Interior.
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The provisions of sections 441 and 442 of this title, authorizing the assignment under certain conditions of homesteads within reclamation projects, and of subchapter XIV of this chapter, authorizing under certain conditions the issuance of patents on reclamation entries, and for other purposes, are hereby extended and made applicable to lands within the Flathead irrigation project, in the former Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, but such lands shall otherwise be subject to the provisions of the Act of Congress approved April 23, 1904 (Thirty-third Statutes at Large, page 302), as amended by the Act of Congress approved May 29, 1908 (Thirty-fifth Statutes at Large, page 448): Provided, That the lien reserved to the United States on the land patented, as provided for in section 542 of this title, shall include all sums due or to become due to the United States on account of the Indian price of such land.
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For the purpose of irrigation and reclamation of arid lands, for controlling floods, improving navigation, regulating the flow of the South Fork of the Flathead River, for the generation of electric energy, and for other beneficial uses primarily in the State of Montana but also in downstream areas, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to proceed as soon as practicable with the construction, operation, and maintenance of the proposed Hungry Horse Dam (including facilities for generating electric energy) on the South Fork of the Flathead River, Flathead County, Montana, to such a height as may be necessary to impound not less than one million acre-feet of water. The Hungry Horse project shall be subject to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto).
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King Hill project, Idaho, shall be subject to the reclamation Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, and all Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, so far as applicable and consistent with contract made prior to July 1, 1918, between the United States and King Hill irrigation district: Provided, That for the purposes of issuing patent to lands reclaimed, the reclamation effected by the operations of the United States Reclamation Service may be considered by the Secretary of the Interior as equivalent to reclamation effected by the State of Idaho, under section 641 of this title.
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Lands within and in the vicinity of the ceded portion of the Wind River or Shoshone Reservation, and included in the Riverton project, Wyoming, shall be subject to all the charges, terms, conditions, provisions, and limitations of the Reclamation Act and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, and suitable provision shall be made by the Secretary of the Interior in fixing the charges to provide for reimbursement of the entire expenditure in accordance with the reclamation law and other laws applicable to said lands.
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Whenever a development of power is necessary for the irrigation of lands under the Salt River reclamation project, Arizona, or an opportunity is afforded for the development of power under said project, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, giving preference to municipal purposes, to enter into contracts for a period not exceeding fifty years for the sale of any surplus power so developed, and the money derived from such sales shall be placed to the credit of said project for disposal as provided in the contract between the United States of America and the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, approved September 6, 1917: Provided, That no contract shall be made for the sale of such surplus power which will impair the efficiency of said project: Provided, however, That no such contract shall be made without the approval of the legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district which has contracted with the United States to repay the cost of said project: Provided further, That the charge for power may be readjusted at the end of five-, ten-, or twenty-year periods after the beginning of any contract for the sale of power in a manner to be described in the contract.
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No contractor shall secure a right to the use of water from American Falls Reservoir, Minidoka project, except under a contract containing the provision that the contractor shall, as a part of the construction cost, pay interest at the rate of six per centum per annum upon the contractor’s proper proportionate share, as found by the Secretary of the Interior, of the moneys advanced by the United States on account of the construction of said reservoir prior to the date of the contract.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct a Federal reclamation project for the irrigation of the lands of the Arch Hurley Conservancy District in New Mexico under the Federal reclamation laws: Provided, That construction work is not to be initiated on said irrigation project until (a) the project shall have been found to be feasible under section 412 of this title, but the project may be found to be financially feasible if the Secretary of the Interior finds that the amount to be expended from the reclamation fund can be repaid by the District, and further that the amount of money to be expended from the reclamation fund, plus the amount of money which has been made available from other sources (for the estimated period of construction), equals the estimated cost of construction; (b) a contract shall have been executed with an irrigation or conservation district embracing the land to be irrigated under said project, which contract shall obligate the contracting district to repay the cost of construction of said project met by expenditure of moneys from the reclamation fund in forty equal annual installments, without interest; (c) contracts shall have been made with each owner of more than one hundred and sixty irrigable acres under said project, by which he, his successors, and assigns shall be obligated to sell all of his land in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigable acres at or below prices fixed by the Secretary of the Interior and within the time to be fixed by said Secretary, no water to be furnished to the land of any such large landowner refusing or failing to execute such contract.
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For the purposes of irrigating land, delivering water for industrial and municipal use, controlling floods, providing recreation and fish and wildlife benefits, and controlling and catching silt, the Secretary of the Interior, acting pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Canadian River reclamation project, Texas, described in the report of the Commissioner of Reclamation approved by the Secretary May 3, 1950, entitled “Plan for Development, Canadian River Project, Texas”, Project Planning Report Number 5–12.22–1, at an estimated cost of $86,656,000, the impounding works whereof shall be located at a suitable site on the Canadian River in that area known as the Panhandle of Texas. In addition to the impounding works, the project shall include such main canals, pumping plants, distribution and drainage systems, and other works as are necessary to accomplish the purposes of sections 600b and 600c of this title. The use by the project of waters arising in Ute and Pajarito Creeks, New Mexico, shall be only such use as does not conflict with use, present or potential, of such waters for beneficial consumptive purposes in New Mexico.
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(b) Actual construction of the project herein authorized shall not be commenced, and no construction contract awarded therefor, until (1) the Congress shall have consented to the interstate compact between the States of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas agreed upon by the Canadian River Compact Commission at Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 6, 1950, in conformity with Public Law 491, Eighty-first Congress, and (2) repayment of that portion of the actual cost of constructing the project which is allocated to municipal and industrial water supply and of interest on the unamortized balance thereof at a rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of the Treasury) equal to the average rate paid by the United States on its long-term loans outstanding at the time the repayment contract is negotiated minus the amount of such net revenues as may be derived from temporary water supply contracts or from other sources prior to the close of the repayment period, shall have been assured by a contract satisfactory to the Secretary, with one central repayment contract organization, the term of which shall not exceed fifty years from the date of completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project as determined by the Secretary.
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(c) The repayment contract shall provide, among other things, (1) that the holder thereof shall have a first right, to which right the rights of the holders of any other type of contract shall be subordinate, to a stated share or quantity of the project’s available water supply for use by its constituent industrial and municipal water users during the repayment period and a permanent right to such share or quantity thereafter subject to payment of such costs as may be incurred by the United States in its operation and maintenance of any part of the project works; (2) that, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the care, operation, and maintenance of such portions of the pipeline and related facilities as are used solely for delivering such water to the contract holder and its constituent organizations shall, as soon as is practicable after completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project, pass to the contract holder or to an organization which is designated by it for that purpose and which is satisfactory to the Secretary; and (3) that title to such portions of the pipeline and related facilities shall in like manner pass to the contract holder or its designee or designees upon payment to the United States of all obligations arising under sections 600b and 600c of this title or incurred in connection with the project.
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The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to investigate, plan, construct, operate and maintain, or otherwise provide for basic public outdoor recreation facilities at the Sanford Reservoir area, Canadian Federal reclamation project, to acquire or otherwise include within the project area such adjacent lands or interests therein as are necessary for present or future public recreation use, and to provide for the public use and enjoyment of project lands, facilities, and water areas in a manner coordinated with other project purposes: Provided, That this section shall not provide the Secretary with a basis for allocation to recreation of water, reservoir capacity, or joint project costs of the Canadian River project nor affect the priority for municipal use of water stored in the Sanford Reservoir, or the priority of use for municipal purposes of the capacity of said reservoir. The Secretary is authorized to enter into agreements with Federal agencies or State or local public bodies for the operation, maintenance, or additional development of project lands or facilities, or to dispose of project lands or facilities to Federal agencies or State or local public bodies by lease, transfer, conveyance or exchange upon such terms and conditions as will best promote the development and operation of such lands or facilities in the public interest for recreation purposes. The cost of providing basic recreation facilities shall be nonreimbursable. In carrying out the aforesaid activities the Secretary shall take cognizance of the effect of the fish and wildlife plan approved by the President December 19, 1962, pursuant to sections 600b and 600c of this title in providing facilities at the Canadian River project which have general recreation utility.
Citations to §485a(d)
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To assist financially in the construction of the aforesaid local distribution and drainage systems by irrigation districts and other public agencies the Secretary is authorized, on application therefor by such irrigation districts or other public agencies, to make funds available on a loan basis from moneys appropriated for the construction of such distribution and drainage systems to any irrigation district or other public agency in an amount equal to the estimated construction cost of such system, contingent upon a finding by the Secretary that the loan can be returned to the United States in accordance with the general repayment provisions of sections 485a(d) and 485h(d) of this title and upon a showing that such district or agency already holds or can acquire all lands and interests in land (except public and other lands or interests in land owned by the United States which are within the administrative jurisdiction of the Secretary and subject to disposition by him) necessary for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the project. The Secretary shall, upon approval of a loan, including any loan for a distribution and drainage system receiving water from the San Luis unit, Central Valley project, authorized by the Act of June 3, 1960 (74 Stat. 156), enter into a repayment contract which includes such provisions as the Secretary shall deem necessary and proper to provide assurance of prompt repayment of the loan within not to exceed forty years plus a development period not to exceed ten years. The term “irrigation district or other public agency” shall for the purposes of sections 421a to 421h of this title mean any conservancy district, irrigation district, water users’ organization, or other organization, which is organized under State law and which has capacity to enter into contracts with the United States pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws.
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For the purpose of providing for United States reclamation projects a feasible and comprehensive plan for an economical and equitable treatment of repayment problems and for variable payments of construction charges which can be met regularly and fully from year to year during periods of decline in agricultural income and unsatisfactory conditions of agriculture as well as during periods of prosperity and good prices for agricultural products, and which will protect adequately the financial interest of the United States in said projects, obligations to pay construction charges may be revised or undertaken pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter.
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In connection with any repayment contract or other form of obligation, existing on August 4, 1939, to pay construction charges, providing for repayment on the basis of a definite period, the Secretary is authorized, upon request by the water users involved or their duly authorized representatives for amendment under this section of said contract or other form of obligation, and if in the Secretary’s judgement such amendment is both practicable and in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter, to amend said contract or other form of obligation so as to provide that the construction charges remaining unaccrued on the date of the amendment, or any later date agreed upon, shall be spread in definite annual installments on the basis of a longer definite period fixed in each case by the Secretary: Provided, That for any construction charges said longer period shall not exceed forty years, exclusive of 1931 and subsequent years to the extent of moratoria or deferments of construction charges due and payable for such years effected pursuant to Acts of Congress, from the date when the first installment of said construction charges become due and payable under the original obligation to pay said construction charges and in no event shall the unexpired part of said longer period exceed double the number of remaining years, as of the date of the amendment made pursuant to this subchapter, in which installments of said construction charges would become due and payable under said existing repayment contract or other form of obligation to pay construction charges.
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(a) The authority granted in section 485b of this title for modification of existing repayment contracts or other forms of obligations to pay construction charges shall continue through December 31, 1960.
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(b) The Secretary is authorized, subject to the provisions of this subsection to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation as he deems necessary to adjust such installments to amounts within the probable ability of the water users to pay. Any such deferment shall be effected only after findings by the Secretary that the installments under consideration probably cannot be paid on their due date without undue burden on the water users, considering the various factors which in the Secretary’s judgment bear on the ability of the water users so to pay.The Secretary may effect the deferments hereunder subject to such conditions and provisions relating to the operation and maintenance of the project involved as he deems to be in the interest of the United States. If, however, any deferments would affect installments to accrue more than twelve months after the action of deferment, they shall be effected only by a formal supplemental contract. Such a contract shall provide by its terms that, it being only an interim solution of the repayment problems dealt with therein, its terms are not, in themselves, to be construed as a criterion of the terms of any amendatory contract that may be negotiated and that any such amendatory contract must be approved by the Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period for the project in question beyond that permitted by the laws applicable to that project, involves no reduction in the total amount payable by the water users, and is not in other respects less advantageous to the Government than the existing contract arrangements. The Secretary shall report to the Congress all deferments granted under this subsection.
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The Secretary in this discretion may require, in connection with any contract entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, that the contract provide (1) that the payments for each year to be made to the United States shall become due and payable on such date or dates, not exceeding two, in each year as the Secretary determines will be substantially contemporaneous with the time or times in each year when water users receive crop returns and (2) if the contract be with an organization, that assessments or levies for the purpose of obtaining moneys sufficient to meet the organization’s payments under said contract shall be made and shall become due and payable within a certain period or periods of time prior to the date or dates on which the organization’s payments to the United States are due and payable, said period or periods of time to be agreed upon in each said contract.
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In connection with any contract, relating to construction charges, entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to require such provisions as he deems proper to secure the adoption of proper accounting, to protect the condition of project works and to provide for the proper use thereof, and to protect project lands against deterioration due to improper use of water. Any such contract shall require advance payment of adequate operation and maintenance charges. The Secretary is further authorized, in his discretion, to require such provisions as he deems proper to penalize delinquencies in payments of construction charges or operation and maintenance charges: Provided, That in any event there shall be penalties imposed on account of delinquencies of not less than one-half of 1 per centum per month of the delinquent charge from and after the date when such charge becomes due and payable: Provided further, That any such contract shall require that no water shall be delivered to lands or parties which are in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges, or to lands or parties which are in arrears for more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such lands or parties to the United States or to the organization in which the lands or parties are included, or to any lands or parties included in an organization which is in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges or in arrears more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such organization to the United States.
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(c) The Secretary from time to time shall report to the Congress on any proposed contracts negotiated pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) or (b)(1) of this section, and he may execute any such contract on behalf of the United States only after approval thereof has been given by Act of Congress. Contracts, so approved, however, may be amended from time to time by mutual agreement and without further approval by Congress if such amendments are within the scope of authority granted prior to or after April 24, 1945, to the Secretary under any Act, except that amendments providing for repayment of construction charges in a period of years longer than authorized by this subchapter, as it may be amended, shall be effective only when approved by Congress.
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(h) No modification of any existing obligation to pay construction charges on any project shall be made by reason of any classification or reclassification undertaken pursuant to this section without express authority therefor granted by Congress upon recommendations of the Secretary made in a report under subsection (f) of this section.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.
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In any repayment contract which provides for payment of construction charges by single annual installments, the Secretary may by agreement with the contracting organization amend such contract to provide for the payment of such annual installments in two parts on such dates in the calendar year as may best enable the contracting organization to meet its payments.
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Expenditures of funds hereafter specifically appropriated for rehabilitation and betterment of any project constructed under authority of the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] and of irrigation systems on projects governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), shall be made only after the organizations concerned shall have obligated themselves for the return thereof, in installments fixed in accordance with their ability to pay, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior in the light of their outstanding repayment obligations, and which shall, to the fullest practicable extent, be scheduled for return with their construction charge installments or otherwise scheduled as he shall determine: Provided, That repayment of such loans made for small reclamation projects shall include interest in accordance with the provisions of said Small Reclamation Projects Act. No such determination of the Secretary of the Interior shall become effective until the expiration of sixty days after it has been submitted to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; except that, any such determination may become effective prior to the expiration of such sixty days in any case in which each such committee approves an earlier date and notifies the Secretary in writing, of such approval: Provided, That when Congress is not in session the Secretary’s determination, if accompanied by a finding by the Secretary that substantial hardship to the water users concerned or substantial further injury to the project works will result, shall become effective when the chairman and ranking minority member of each such committee shall file with the Secretary their written approval of said findings. The term “rehabilitation and betterment”, as used in this section, shall mean maintenance, including replacements, which cannot be financed currently, as otherwise contemplated by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of operation and maintenance costs, but shall not include construction, the costs of which are returnable, in whole or in part, through “construction charges” as that term is defined in section 485a(d) of this title. Such rehabilitation and betterment work may be performed by contract, by force-account, or, notwithstanding any other law and subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the organization concerned whereby such organization shall perform such work.
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For the purpose of avoiding an unduly high operation and maintenance assessment in any one year and to keep the operation and maintenance charges in connection with the Arrowrock Division of the Boise reclamation project within the ability of the water users to pay, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to allow the irrigation districts of the said Arrowrock Division and the irrigation districts ditch companies, and water users who have assumed obligations to pay proportionate parts of the estimated cost of the operation and maintenance of the Arrowrock Reservoir, to pay the costs, as determined conclusively by said Secretary, incurred in the repair, resurfacing, and improvement of the Arrowrock Dam and in increasing the height thereof (to provide additional capacity to offset past and, to some extent, future losses of capacity resulting from the deposit of silt in the said reservoir) in twenty annual installments instead of requiring the payment of all of such operation and maintenance costs in one year as provided in section 492 of this title: Provided, That such costs, for the purpose of any amendatory contracts affecting the construction charges of Arrowrock Dam that may be entered into as authorized by subchapter X of this chapter, may, in the discretion of the Secretary, be treated as part of the construction charges of said dam, and as payable in the same manner as such charges.
Citations to §485a(e)
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In connection with any repayment contract or other form of obligation, existing on August 4, 1939, to pay construction charges, providing for repayment on the basis of a definite period, the Secretary is authorized, upon request by the water users involved or their duly authorized representatives for amendment under this section of said contract or other form of obligation, and if in the Secretary’s judgement such amendment is both practicable and in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter, to amend said contract or other form of obligation so as to provide that the construction charges remaining unaccrued on the date of the amendment, or any later date agreed upon, shall be spread in definite annual installments on the basis of a longer definite period fixed in each case by the Secretary: Provided, That for any construction charges said longer period shall not exceed forty years, exclusive of 1931 and subsequent years to the extent of moratoria or deferments of construction charges due and payable for such years effected pursuant to Acts of Congress, from the date when the first installment of said construction charges become due and payable under the original obligation to pay said construction charges and in no event shall the unexpired part of said longer period exceed double the number of remaining years, as of the date of the amendment made pursuant to this subchapter, in which installments of said construction charges would become due and payable under said existing repayment contract or other form of obligation to pay construction charges.
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(a) The authority granted in section 485b of this title for modification of existing repayment contracts or other forms of obligations to pay construction charges shall continue through December 31, 1960.
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(b) The Secretary is authorized, subject to the provisions of this subsection to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation as he deems necessary to adjust such installments to amounts within the probable ability of the water users to pay. Any such deferment shall be effected only after findings by the Secretary that the installments under consideration probably cannot be paid on their due date without undue burden on the water users, considering the various factors which in the Secretary’s judgment bear on the ability of the water users so to pay.The Secretary may effect the deferments hereunder subject to such conditions and provisions relating to the operation and maintenance of the project involved as he deems to be in the interest of the United States. If, however, any deferments would affect installments to accrue more than twelve months after the action of deferment, they shall be effected only by a formal supplemental contract. Such a contract shall provide by its terms that, it being only an interim solution of the repayment problems dealt with therein, its terms are not, in themselves, to be construed as a criterion of the terms of any amendatory contract that may be negotiated and that any such amendatory contract must be approved by the Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period for the project in question beyond that permitted by the laws applicable to that project, involves no reduction in the total amount payable by the water users, and is not in other respects less advantageous to the Government than the existing contract arrangements. The Secretary shall report to the Congress all deferments granted under this subsection.
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(d) No water may be delivered for irrigation of lands in connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project until an organization, satisfactory in form and powers to the Secretary, has entered into a repayment contract with the United States, in a form satisfactory to the Secretary, providing among other things—(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(e) In lieu of entering into a repayment contract pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section to cover that part of the cost of the construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation, the Secretary, in his discretion, may enter into either short- or long-term contracts to furnish water for irrigation purposes. Each such contract shall be for such period, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, due consideration being given to that part of the cost of construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation; and shall require payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. In the event such contracts are made for furnishing water for irrigation purposes, the costs of any irrigation water distribution works constructed by the United States in connection with the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, shall be covered by a repayment contract entered into pursuant to said subsection (d).
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(f) No less than sixty days before entering into or amending any repayment contract or any contract for the delivery of irrigation water (except any contract for the delivery of surplus or interim irrigation water whose duration is for one year or less) the Secretary shall—(1) publish notice of the proposed contract or amendment in newspapers of general circulation in the affected area and shall make reasonable efforts to otherwise notify interested parties which may be affected by such contract or amendment, together with information indicating to whom comments or inquiries concerning the proposed actions can be addressed; and(2) provide an opportunity for submission of written data, views and arguments, and shall consider all substantive comments so received.
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(3) credit each year to every party which has entered into or which shall enter into a long-term contract pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title so much of the amount paid by said party on or before the due date as is in excess of the share of the operation and maintenance costs of the project which the Secretary finds is properly chargeable to that party. Credit for payments heretofore made under any such contract shall be established by the Secretary as soon after July 2, 1956 as it is feasible for him to do so. After the sum of such credits is equal to the amount which would have been for repayment by the party if a repayment contract under subsection (d) of section 485h of this title had been entered into, which amount shall be established by the Secretary upon completion of the project concerned or as far in advance thereof as is feasible, no construction component shall be included in any charges made for the furnishing of water to the contracting party and any charges theretofore fixed by contract or otherwise shall be reduced accordingly;
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In any repayment contract which provides for payment of construction charges by single annual installments, the Secretary may by agreement with the contracting organization amend such contract to provide for the payment of such annual installments in two parts on such dates in the calendar year as may best enable the contracting organization to meet its payments.
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(2) For transferred works, the Secretary is authorized to advance the costs incurred by the transferred works operating entity in conducting extraordinary operation and maintenance work and negotiate appropriate 50-year repayment contracts with project beneficiaries providing for the return of reimbursable costs, with interest, under this subsection: Provided, however, That no contract entered into pursuant to this subchapter shall be deemed to be a new or amended contract for the purposes of section 390cc(a) of this title.
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(B) Amounts repaid by a transferred works operating entity or project beneficiary responsible for repayment of reimbursable costs receiving funds under a repayment contract entered into under this subsection shall be deposited in the Account and shall be available to the Secretary for expenditure, subject to paragraph (6), in accordance with this subsection, and without further appropriation.
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(b) Actual construction of the project herein authorized shall not be commenced, and no construction contract awarded therefor, until (1) the Congress shall have consented to the interstate compact between the States of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas agreed upon by the Canadian River Compact Commission at Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 6, 1950, in conformity with Public Law 491, Eighty-first Congress, and (2) repayment of that portion of the actual cost of constructing the project which is allocated to municipal and industrial water supply and of interest on the unamortized balance thereof at a rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of the Treasury) equal to the average rate paid by the United States on its long-term loans outstanding at the time the repayment contract is negotiated minus the amount of such net revenues as may be derived from temporary water supply contracts or from other sources prior to the close of the repayment period, shall have been assured by a contract satisfactory to the Secretary, with one central repayment contract organization, the term of which shall not exceed fifty years from the date of completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project as determined by the Secretary.
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(c) The repayment contract shall provide, among other things, (1) that the holder thereof shall have a first right, to which right the rights of the holders of any other type of contract shall be subordinate, to a stated share or quantity of the project’s available water supply for use by its constituent industrial and municipal water users during the repayment period and a permanent right to such share or quantity thereafter subject to payment of such costs as may be incurred by the United States in its operation and maintenance of any part of the project works; (2) that, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the care, operation, and maintenance of such portions of the pipeline and related facilities as are used solely for delivering such water to the contract holder and its constituent organizations shall, as soon as is practicable after completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project, pass to the contract holder or to an organization which is designated by it for that purpose and which is satisfactory to the Secretary; and (3) that title to such portions of the pipeline and related facilities shall in like manner pass to the contract holder or its designee or designees upon payment to the United States of all obligations arising under sections 600b and 600c of this title or incurred in connection with the project.
Citations to §485a(f)
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(a) The Secretary is authorized and directed to investigate the repayment problems of any existing project contract unit in connection with which, in his judgment, a contract under section 485b or 485c1 of this title would not be practicable nor provide an economically sound adjustment, and to negotiate a contract which, in his judgment, both would provide fair and equitable treatment of the repayment problems involved and would be in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter.
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(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.
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(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
Citations to §485a(g)
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The Secretary in this discretion may require, in connection with any contract entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, that the contract provide (1) that the payments for each year to be made to the United States shall become due and payable on such date or dates, not exceeding two, in each year as the Secretary determines will be substantially contemporaneous with the time or times in each year when water users receive crop returns and (2) if the contract be with an organization, that assessments or levies for the purpose of obtaining moneys sufficient to meet the organization’s payments under said contract shall be made and shall become due and payable within a certain period or periods of time prior to the date or dates on which the organization’s payments to the United States are due and payable, said period or periods of time to be agreed upon in each said contract.
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In connection with any contract, relating to construction charges, entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to require such provisions as he deems proper to secure the adoption of proper accounting, to protect the condition of project works and to provide for the proper use thereof, and to protect project lands against deterioration due to improper use of water. Any such contract shall require advance payment of adequate operation and maintenance charges. The Secretary is further authorized, in his discretion, to require such provisions as he deems proper to penalize delinquencies in payments of construction charges or operation and maintenance charges: Provided, That in any event there shall be penalties imposed on account of delinquencies of not less than one-half of 1 per centum per month of the delinquent charge from and after the date when such charge becomes due and payable: Provided further, That any such contract shall require that no water shall be delivered to lands or parties which are in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges, or to lands or parties which are in arrears for more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such lands or parties to the United States or to the organization in which the lands or parties are included, or to any lands or parties included in an organization which is in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges or in arrears more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such organization to the United States.
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(b) No classification or reclassification pursuant to the authority of this subchapter shall be undertaken unless a request therefor, by an organization or duly authorized representatives of the water users, in the form required by subsection (c) of this section has been made of the Secretary. The Secretary shall plan the classification work, undertaken pursuant to the authority of this section, in such manner as in his judgment will result in the most expeditious completion of the work.
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(c) In any request made to the Secretary for a land classification or reclassification under this section, the organization or representatives of the water users shall furnish a list of those lands which are considered to be of comparatively low productivity or to be nonproductive, and of those lands which are considered to be of greater or lesser productivity than indicated by existing classifications, if any, made pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws, and shall furnish also such data relating thereto as the Secretary by regulation may require.
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(f) One-half of the expense involved in any classification work undertaken pursuant to this section shall be charged to operation and maintenance administration nonreimbursable; and one-half shall be paid in advance by the organization involved. On determining probable justification for the requested classification or reclassification as provided in this section, the Secretary shall estimate the cost of the work involved and shall submit a statement of the estimated cost to said organization. Said organization, before commencement of the work, shall advance to the United States one-half of the amount set forth in said statement and also shall advance one-half of the amount of supplementary estimates of costs which the Secretary may find it necessary to make from time to time during the progress of the work; and said amounts shall be and remain available for expenditure by the Secretary for the purposes for which they are advanced, until the work is completed or abandoned. After completion or abandonment of the work, the Secretary, shall determine the actual costs thereof; and said organization shall pay any additional amount required to make its total payments hereunder equal to one-half of the actual cost or shall be credited with any amount by which advances made by it exceed one-half of said actual cost, as the case may be.
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(1) The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts to furnish water for municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes: Provided, That any such contract either (A) shall require repayment to the United States, over a period of not to exceed forty years from the year in which water is first delivered for the use of the contracting party, with interest not exceeding the rate of 3½ per centum per annum if the Secretary determines an interest charge to be proper, of an appropriate share as determined by the Secretary of that part of the construction costs allocated by him to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes; or (B) shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, and shall require the payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. Any sale of electric power or lease of power privileges, made by the Secretary in connection with the operation of any project or division of a project, shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in his judgment will produce power revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost, interest on an appropriate share of the construction investment at not less than 3 per centum per annum, and such other fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper: Provided further, That in said sales or leases preference shall be given to municipalities and other public corporations or agencies; and also to cooperatives and other nonprofit organizations financed in whole or in part by loans made pursuant to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 [7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.]. Nothing in this subsection shall be applicable to provisions in existing contracts, made pursuant to law, for the use of power and miscellaneous revenues of a project for the benefit of users of water from such project. The provisions of this subsection respecting the sales of electric power and leases of power privileges shall be an authorization in addition to and alternative to any authority in existing laws related to particular projects and reserve to the Secretary the exclusive authority to develop small conduit hydropower using Bureau of Reclamation facilities and pumped storage hydropower exclusively using Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs. No contract relating to municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes or to electric power or power privileges shall be made unless, in the judgment of the Secretary, it will not impair the efficiency of the project for irrigation purposes.
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(d) No water may be delivered for irrigation of lands in connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project until an organization, satisfactory in form and powers to the Secretary, has entered into a repayment contract with the United States, in a form satisfactory to the Secretary, providing among other things—(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.
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(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.
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(2) include in any long-term contract hereafter entered into under subsection (e) of section 485h of this title with a contracting organization provision, if the organization so requests, for conversion of said contract, under stated terms and conditions mutually agreeable to the parties, to a contract under subsection (d) of section 485h of this title at such time as, account being taken of the amount credited to return by the organization as hereinafter provided, the remaining amount of construction cost which is properly assignable for ultimate return by it can probably be repaid to the United States within the term of a contract under subsection (d) of section 485h of this title;
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In any repayment contract which provides for payment of construction charges by single annual installments, the Secretary may by agreement with the contracting organization amend such contract to provide for the payment of such annual installments in two parts on such dates in the calendar year as may best enable the contracting organization to meet its payments.
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When the payments required by this Act are made for the major portion of the lands irrigated from the waters of any of the works herein provided for, then the management and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their expense under such form of organization and under such rules and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior; Provided, That the title to and the management and operation of the reservoirs and the works necessary for their protection and operation shall remain in the Government until otherwise provided by Congress.
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Whenever an irrigation district, municipality, or water users’ organization assumes operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply pursuant to a contract entered into with the United States in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Secretary of the Interior may transfer to said district, municipality, or organization title to movable property which has been purchased with funds advanced by the district, municipality, or organization or which, in the case of property purchased with appropriated funds, is necessary to the operation and maintenance of such works and the value of which is to be repaid under a contract with the district, municipality, or organization. In order to encourage the assumption by irrigation districts, municipalities, and water users’ organizations of the operation and maintenance of works constructed to furnish or distribute a water supply, the Secretary is authorized to use appropriated funds available for the project involved to acquire movable property for transfer under the terms and conditions hereinbefore provided, at the time operation and maintenance is assumed.
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Whenever a municipal corporation or other organization to which water for municipal, domestic, or industrial use is furnished or distributed under a contract entered into with the United States pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws so requests, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to transfer to it or its nominee the care, operation, and maintenance of the works by which such water supply is made available or such part of those works as, in his judgment, is appropriate in the circumstances, subject to such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
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Expenditures of funds hereafter specifically appropriated for rehabilitation and betterment of any project constructed under authority of the Small Reclamation Projects Act (Act of August 6, 1956, 70 Stat. 1044, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto) [43 U.S.C. 422a et seq.] and of irrigation systems on projects governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), shall be made only after the organizations concerned shall have obligated themselves for the return thereof, in installments fixed in accordance with their ability to pay, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior in the light of their outstanding repayment obligations, and which shall, to the fullest practicable extent, be scheduled for return with their construction charge installments or otherwise scheduled as he shall determine: Provided, That repayment of such loans made for small reclamation projects shall include interest in accordance with the provisions of said Small Reclamation Projects Act. No such determination of the Secretary of the Interior shall become effective until the expiration of sixty days after it has been submitted to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; except that, any such determination may become effective prior to the expiration of such sixty days in any case in which each such committee approves an earlier date and notifies the Secretary in writing, of such approval: Provided, That when Congress is not in session the Secretary’s determination, if accompanied by a finding by the Secretary that substantial hardship to the water users concerned or substantial further injury to the project works will result, shall become effective when the chairman and ranking minority member of each such committee shall file with the Secretary their written approval of said findings. The term “rehabilitation and betterment”, as used in this section, shall mean maintenance, including replacements, which cannot be financed currently, as otherwise contemplated by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of operation and maintenance costs, but shall not include construction, the costs of which are returnable, in whole or in part, through “construction charges” as that term is defined in section 485a(d) of this title. Such rehabilitation and betterment work may be performed by contract, by force-account, or, notwithstanding any other law and subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the organization concerned whereby such organization shall perform such work.
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Funds appropriated for the construction of irrigation works authorized to be undertaken pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), the Act of August 11, 1939 (53 Stat. 1418), as amended [16 U.S.C. 590y et seq.], or other Acts of Congress may, insofar as such funds are available for the construction of drainage facilities and other minor items, be utilized by the Secretary of the Interior to accomplish such work by contract, by force account or, notwithstanding any other law and subject only to such reasonable terms and conditions as the Secretary shall deem appropriate for the protection of the United States, by contract entered into with the repayment organization concerned whereby said organization shall perform such work: Provided, That in the event construction work to be accomplished by any one repayment organization, pursuant to contract with the United States, exceeds a total cost of $200,000, such contract shall not be executed by the Secretary prior to the expiration of sixty calendar days (which sixty days, however, shall not include days on which either the House of Representatives or the Senate is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain) from the date on which it has been submitted to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for reference to the appropriate Committees, except that such contract may be executed prior to expiration of such sixty days in any case in which both such Committees approve said contract and notify the Secretary in writing of such approval.
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(6) The term “transferred works operating entity” means the organization which is contractually responsible for operation and maintenance of transferred works.
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The public reservations in such town sites shall be improved and maintained by the town authorities at the expense of the town; and upon the organization thereof as municipal corporations the said reservations shall be conveyed to such corporations by the Secretary of the Interior, subject to the condition that they shall be used forever for public purposes.
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(c) For the purpose of carrying out and effecting the objects of this section the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter into a contract with the organization formed by the owners of the lands irrigated within said project or project unit pursuant to section 498 of this title, stipulating and providing that the organization will maintain and use such of the lands so reserved for the purposes prescribed in this section as such organization may desire, and that upon failure to so maintain and use such lands, or in the event that same shall be permitted to be used or occupied for other purposes than those stipulated in this section, the control of the lands shall revert to the United States.
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(b) Actual construction of the project herein authorized shall not be commenced, and no construction contract awarded therefor, until (1) the Congress shall have consented to the interstate compact between the States of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas agreed upon by the Canadian River Compact Commission at Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 6, 1950, in conformity with Public Law 491, Eighty-first Congress, and (2) repayment of that portion of the actual cost of constructing the project which is allocated to municipal and industrial water supply and of interest on the unamortized balance thereof at a rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of the Treasury) equal to the average rate paid by the United States on its long-term loans outstanding at the time the repayment contract is negotiated minus the amount of such net revenues as may be derived from temporary water supply contracts or from other sources prior to the close of the repayment period, shall have been assured by a contract satisfactory to the Secretary, with one central repayment contract organization, the term of which shall not exceed fifty years from the date of completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project as determined by the Secretary.
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(c) The repayment contract shall provide, among other things, (1) that the holder thereof shall have a first right, to which right the rights of the holders of any other type of contract shall be subordinate, to a stated share or quantity of the project’s available water supply for use by its constituent industrial and municipal water users during the repayment period and a permanent right to such share or quantity thereafter subject to payment of such costs as may be incurred by the United States in its operation and maintenance of any part of the project works; (2) that, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the care, operation, and maintenance of such portions of the pipeline and related facilities as are used solely for delivering such water to the contract holder and its constituent organizations shall, as soon as is practicable after completion of the municipal and industrial water supply features of the project, pass to the contract holder or to an organization which is designated by it for that purpose and which is satisfactory to the Secretary; and (3) that title to such portions of the pipeline and related facilities shall in like manner pass to the contract holder or its designee or designees upon payment to the United States of all obligations arising under sections 600b and 600c of this title or incurred in connection with the project.
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Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, in constructing, operating, and maintaining the units of the Colorado River storage project and the participating projects listed in section 620 of this title, the Secretary shall be governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto): Provided, That (a) irrigation repayment contracts shall be entered into which, except as otherwise provided for the Paonia and Eden projects, provide for repayment of the obligation assumed thereunder with respect to any project contract unit over a period of not more than fifty years exclusive of any development period authorized by law; (b) prior to construction of irrigation distribution facilities, repayment contracts shall be made with an “organization” as defined in section 485a(g) of this title which has the capacity to levy assessments upon all taxable real property located within its boundaries to assist in making repayments, except where a substantial proportion of the lands to be served are owned by the United States; (c) contracts relating to municipal water supply may be made without regard to the limitations of the last sentence of section 485h(c) of this title; and (d), as to Indian lands within, under or served by any participating project, payment of construction costs within the capability of the land to repay shall be subject to section 386a of title 25: Provided further, That for a period of ten years from April 11, 1956, no water from any participating project authorized by this chapter shall be delivered to any water user for the production on newly irrigated lands of any basic agricultural commodity, as defined in the Agricultural Act of 1949 [7 U.S.C. 1421 et seq.], or any amendment thereof, if the total supply of such commodity for the marketing year in which the bulk of the crop would normally be marketed is in excess of the normal supply as defined in section 1301(b)(10) of title 7 unless the Secretary of Agriculture calls for an increase in production of such commodity in the interest of national security. All units and participating projects shall be subject to the apportionments of the use of water between the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River and among the States of the Upper Basin fixed in the Colorado River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, respectively, and to the terms of the treaty with the United Mexican States (Treaty Series 994).
Citations to §485a(h)
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(a) No expenditures for the construction of any new project, new division of a project, or new supplemental works on a project shall be made, nor shall estimates be submitted therefor, by the Secretary until after he has made an investigation thereof and has submitted to the President and to the Congress his report and findings on—(1) the engineering feasibility of the proposed construction;(2) the estimated cost of the proposed construction;(3) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to irrigation and probably be repaid by the water users;(4) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to power and probably be returned to the United States in net power revenues;(5) the part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes and probably be returned to the United States.If the proposed construction is found by the Secretary to have engineering feasibility and if the repayable and returnable allocations to irrigation, power, and municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes found by the Secretary to be proper, together with any allocation to flood control or navigation made under subsection (b) of this section, equal the total estimated cost of construction as determined by the Secretary, then the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, covered by his findings, shall be deemed authorized and may be undertaken by the Secretary. If all such allocations do not equal said total estimated cost, then said new project, new division, or new supplemental works may be undertaken by the Secretary only after provision therefor has been made by Act of Congress enacted after the Secretary has submitted to the President and the Congress the report and findings involved.
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(b) In connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project there may be allocated to flood control or navigation the part of said total estimated cost which the Secretary may find to be proper. Items for any such allocations made in connection with projects which may be undertaken pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be included in the estimates of appropriations submitted by the Secretary for said projects, and funds for such portions of the projects shall not become available except as directly appropriated or allotted to the Department of the Interior. In connection with the making of such an allocation, the Secretary shall consult with the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of the Army, and may perform any of the necessary investigations or studies under a cooperative agreement with the Secretary of the Army. In the event of such an allocation the Secretary of the Interior shall operate the project for purposes of flood control or navigation, to the extent justified by said allocation therefor.
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(1) The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts to furnish water for municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes: Provided, That any such contract either (A) shall require repayment to the United States, over a period of not to exceed forty years from the year in which water is first delivered for the use of the contracting party, with interest not exceeding the rate of 3½ per centum per annum if the Secretary determines an interest charge to be proper, of an appropriate share as determined by the Secretary of that part of the construction costs allocated by him to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes; or (B) shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, and shall require the payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. Any sale of electric power or lease of power privileges, made by the Secretary in connection with the operation of any project or division of a project, shall be for such periods, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in his judgment will produce power revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost, interest on an appropriate share of the construction investment at not less than 3 per centum per annum, and such other fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper: Provided further, That in said sales or leases preference shall be given to municipalities and other public corporations or agencies; and also to cooperatives and other nonprofit organizations financed in whole or in part by loans made pursuant to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 [7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.]. Nothing in this subsection shall be applicable to provisions in existing contracts, made pursuant to law, for the use of power and miscellaneous revenues of a project for the benefit of users of water from such project. The provisions of this subsection respecting the sales of electric power and leases of power privileges shall be an authorization in addition to and alternative to any authority in existing laws related to particular projects and reserve to the Secretary the exclusive authority to develop small conduit hydropower using Bureau of Reclamation facilities and pumped storage hydropower exclusively using Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs. No contract relating to municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes or to electric power or power privileges shall be made unless, in the judgment of the Secretary, it will not impair the efficiency of the project for irrigation purposes.
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(d) No water may be delivered for irrigation of lands in connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project until an organization, satisfactory in form and powers to the Secretary, has entered into a repayment contract with the United States, in a form satisfactory to the Secretary, providing among other things—(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.(2) That the part of the construction costs allocated by the Secretary to irrigation shall be included in a general repayment obligation of the organization; and that the organization may vary its distribution of construction charges in a manner that takes into account the productivity of the various classes of lands and the benefits accruing to the lands by reason of the construction: Provided, That no distribution of construction charges over the lands included in the organization shall in any manner be deemed to relieve the organization or any party or any land therein of the organization’s general obligation to the United States.(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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(e) In lieu of entering into a repayment contract pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section to cover that part of the cost of the construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation, the Secretary, in his discretion, may enter into either short- or long-term contracts to furnish water for irrigation purposes. Each such contract shall be for such period, not to exceed forty years, and at such rates as in the Secretary’s judgment will produce revenues at least sufficient to cover an appropriate share of the annual operation and maintenance cost and an appropriate share of such fixed charges as the Secretary deems proper, due consideration being given to that part of the cost of construction of works connected with water supply and allocated to irrigation; and shall require payment of said rates each year in advance of delivery of water for said year. In the event such contracts are made for furnishing water for irrigation purposes, the costs of any irrigation water distribution works constructed by the United States in connection with the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, shall be covered by a repayment contract entered into pursuant to said subsection (d).
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All operation and maintenance charges upon projects existing prior to December 5, 1924, shall become due and payable on the date fixed for each project by the Secretary of the Interior, and if such charge is paid on or before the date when due there shall be a discount of 5 per centum of such charge.
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Whenever two-thirds of the irrigable area of any project, or division of a project, shall be covered by water-right contracts between the water users and the United States, said project shall be required, as a condition precedent to receiving the benefits of sections 371, 376, 377, 412, 417, 433, 438,1 462, 463,1 466, 467,1 473,1 474,1 478, 493, 494, 500, 501, and 526 of this title to take over, through a legally organized water-users’ association or irrigation district, the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and thereafter the United States, in its relation to said project, shall deal with a water users’ association or irrigation district, and when the water users assume control of a project, the operation and maintenance charges for the year then current shall be covered into the construction account to be repaid as part of the construction repayments.
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Whenever the water users take over the care, operation, and maintenance of a project, or a division of a project, the total accumulated net profits, as determined by the Secretary, derived from the operation of project power plants, leasing of project grazing and farm lands, and the sale or use of town sites shall be credited to the construction charge of the project, or a division thereof, and thereafter the net profits from such sources may be used by the water users to be credited annually, first, on account of project construction charge, second, on account of project operation and maintenance charge, and third, as the water users may direct. No distribution to individual water users shall be made out of any such profits before all obligations to the Government shall have been fully paid.
Citations to §485a(i)
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
Citations to §485a(j)
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(b) For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, under construction on August 4, 1939, or for which appropriations had been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract had not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 485h of this title and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in section 485h(d) or 485h(e) of this title. In connection with any such project, division, or development unit, on which the majority of the lands involved are public lands of the United States, the Secretary, prior to entering into a repayment contract, may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block: Provided, That in the event a development period is fixed prior to execution of a repayment contract, execution thereof shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period. During any such development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved only on a toll-charge basis, at a charge per annum per acre-foot to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be collected in advance of delivery of water. Pending negotiation and execution of a repayment contract for any other such project, division, or development unit, water may be delivered for a period of not more than five years from August 4, 1939, on the same toll-charge basis. Any such toll charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of operation and maintenance during the toll-charge period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(1) That the Secretary may fix a development period for each irrigation block, if any, of not to exceed ten years from and including the first calendar year in which water is delivered for the lands in said block; and that during the development period water shall be delivered to the lands in the irrigation block involved at a charge per annum per acre-foot, or other charge, to be fixed by the Secretary each year and to be paid in advance of delivery of water: Provided, That where the lands included in an irrigation block are for the most part lands owned by the United States, the Secretary, prior to execution of a repayment contract, may fix a development period, but in such case execution of such a contract shall be a condition precedent to delivery of water after the close of the development period: Provided further, That when the Secretary, by contract or by notice given thereunder, shall have fixed a development period of less than ten years, and at any time thereafter but before commencement of the repayment period conditions arise which in the judgment of the Secretary would have justified the fixing of a longer period, he may amend such contract or notice to extend such development period to a date not to exceed ten years from its commencement, and in a case where no development period was provided, he may amend such contract within the same limits: Provided further, That when the Secretary shall have deferred the payment of all or any part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract pursuant to the authority of the Act of September 21, 1959 (73 Stat. 584), he may, at any time prior to the due date prescribed for the first installment not reduced by such deferment, and by agreement with the contracting organization, terminate the supplemental contract by which such deferment was effected, credit the construction payments made, and exercise the authority granted in this section. After the close of the development period, any such charges collected and which the Secretary determines to be in excess of the cost of the operation and maintenance during the development period shall be credited to the construction cost of the project in the manner determined by the Secretary.
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(3) That the general repayment obligation of the organization shall be spread in annual installments, of the number and amounts fixed by the Secretary, over a period of not more than 40 years, exclusive of any development period fixed under paragraph (1) of this subsection, for any project contract unit or, if the project contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation blocks, for any such block, or as near to said period of not more than forty years as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within such period under average conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay.
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(4) That the first annual installment for any project contract unit, or for any irrigation block, as the case may be, shall accrue, on the date fixed by the Secretary, in the year after the last year of the development period or, if there be not development period, in the calendar year after the Secretary announces that the construction contemplated in the repayment contract is substantially completed or is advanced to a point where delivery of water can be made to substantially all of the lands in said unit or block to be irrigated; and if there be no development period fixed, that prior to and including the year in which the Secretary makes said announcement water shall be delivered only on the toll charge basis hereinbefore provided for development periods.
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After the execution of a contract pursuant to the authority of section 9(d)(1) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 [43 U.S.C. 485h(d)(1)] and prior to the commencement of the development period provided thereunder, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to amend such contract to provide for irrigation blocks, or if such are already provided, to add to or modify such irrigation blocks, as he shall deem desirable to carry out the purposes of that Act.