Washington : Government Printing Office
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| Chap. 1170 | Palo Verde Irrigation District, Calif. Diversion dam, etc. |
| Sec. 2 | Contract. |
| Sec. 3 | Authority of Secretary of Interior. |
| Sec. 5 | Use of water. |
| Sec. 5 | 43 U. S. C. 617t. |
| Sec. 5 | 59 Stat. 1219. |
| Sec. 5 | 1047 |
| Sec. 6 | Nonliability. |
| Sec. 7 | Nonreimbursable costs. |
| Sec. 8 | Appropriation. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purpose of reestablishing for the Palo Verde Irrigation District, a public agency of the State of California, a means of diverting its irrigation water supply from the Colorado River, Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct a dam across the Colorado River at or near
the district's present or former intake capable of diverting water into said intake at an elevation of two hundred eighty-two and three-tenths feet above mean sea level, Bureau of Reclamation datum, and works appurtenant to said dam which are required to carry out the purposes stated.
Prior to commencing construction of the works authorized in section 1 of this Act, the Palo Verde Irrigation District shall have entered into a contract with the United States, in form and content satisfactory to the Secretary, undertaking—
(a) to furnish to the United States for the construction and maintenance of said dam and appurtenant works the use of all lands, easements, rights-of-way, and other interests in land required for said purposes, except those which the United States already has a full and perfect right to use or which lie within the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and to save the United States harmless from all claims arising from the use and occupancy of said lands and interests in land and the operation and maintenance of said dam and appurtenant works;
(b) to operate and maintain said dam and appurtenant works without cost to the United States upon substantial completion thereof as determined by the Secretary; and
(c) to accept title to said dam, appurtenant works, lands, and interests in land upon payment by the district (which payment shall be made over a period of not more than fifty years) of the sum of $1,175,000, and upon repayment of any loan made pursuant to section 4, clause (c), of this Act: Provided, That there shall be and is hereby reserved to the United States or there shall be made available to it, as the case may require, the exclusive right to utilize, without cost to it, said dam, appurtenant works, lands, and interests in land for such development, generation, and transmission of electric power and energy as may hereafter be authorized by law: Provided further, That in the event it becomes practicable to develop hydroelectric energy at this site, the division of such energy between the United States and the district shall be a matter of negotiation prior to construction of any powerplant.
To aid in the construction, operation, and maintenance of the works authorized by this Act, the Secretary shall have the same authority as is given him with respect to the Colorado River front work and levee system by the second sentence of the amendment to the Act of January 21, 1927 (44 Stat. 1010, 1021), which is contained in the Act of June 28, 1946 (60 Stat. 338).
The Secretary is further authorized—
(a) and directed to remove, or otherwise to nullify the effects of, the temporary rock weir across the Colorado River which was constructed under authority of the First Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1944 (58 Stat. 150, 157);
(b) to construct levees, ditches, and other works required to protect the lands of the Colorado River Indian Reservation upstream from the diversion dam authorized in section 1 of this Act against Colorado River flows of seventy-five thousand cubic feet per second and to provide a means of draining said lands;
(c) to lend to the Palo Verde Irrigation District, upon terms and conditions satisfactory to the Secretary, the sum of not more than $500,000 for the modification of the district's existing works to accommodate them to the works authorized in section 1 of this Act, the sum loaned to be repaid over a period of not more than fifty years from the date of the loan; and
(d) to grant to the United States, upon paying the sum of $50 per acre into the Treasury to the credit of the Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, such
lands, easements, rights-of-way, or other interests in land within the Colorado River Indian Reservation, not exceeding thirty acres in all, as may be required for the construction and maintenance of the works authorized in section 1 of this Act: Provided, That nothing contained herein shall preclude said tribes, if they believe that such payment constitutes less than just compensation for the extinguishment or impairment of their interest in the lands and interests in land in question, from maintaining an appropriate action against the United States for such compensation.
The use of all water diverted for the district through said works from the Colorado River shall be subject to and controlled by the Colorado River Compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057), the California Limitation Act (Stats. Cal. 1929, ch. 16), contract dated February 7, 1933, between the United States and Palo Verde Irrigation District, and the Mexican Treaty (Treaty Series 994), and shall be included within and shall in no way increase the total use of water to which the State of California is entitled as limited by said compact, statutes, contract, and treaty.
Neither the enactment of this Act nor anything contained in it nor any action taken pursuant to it shall be deemed a recognition or admission of any obligation or liability whatsoever to the Palo Verde Irrigation District on the part of the United States.
All costs incurred under authority of this Act, except those to be repaid by the Palo Verde Irrigation District, shall be nonreimbursable.
There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $7,099,000.
Approved, August 31, 1954.
