Washington : Government Printing Office
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| Chap. 809 | Washoe reclamation project, Nev: Calif. |
| Sec. 2 | 43 U. S. C. 371 note. |
| Sec. 2 | Contract. |
| Sec. 2 | 43 U. S. C. 485h. |
| Sec. 2 | Supplemental water supply. |
| Sec. 2 | 43 U. S. C. 423e. |
| Sec. 2 | Net revenues. |
| Sec. 2 | 776 |
| Sec. 2 | 43 U. S. C. 485a. |
| Sec. 2 | Alpine County, Calif. |
| Sec. 2 | Little Truckee River. |
| Sec. 3 | Facilities for access, public health, etc. |
| Sec. 3 | Report to Congressional committees. |
| Sec. 4 | 777 Fish and wildlife resources. |
| Sec. 4 | Limitation. |
| Sec. 4 | 16 U. S. C. 662. |
| Sec. 5 | Appropriation. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the purposes of furnishing water for the irrigation of approximately fifty thousand acres of land in the Carson and Truckee River Basins, Nevada and California, providing drainage service to approximately thirty-one thousand acres of land therein, firming the existing water supplies of lands under the Truckee River storage project and the Newlands project, controlling floods, providing hydroelectric power, development of fish and wildlife resources, and for other beneficial purposes, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Washoe reclamation project consisting of two principal reservoirs at the Stampede and Watasheamu sites, together with other necessary works for the impounding, diversion, and the delivery of water, the generation and transmission of hydroelectric power, and the drainage of lands. The dam at the Stampede site shall be so constructed as to permit its ultimate enlargement to a height at which the reservoir will have a capacity of approximately one hundred and seventy-five thousand acre-feet.
(a) In constructing, operating, and maintaining the works authorized in section 1 of this Act, the Secretary shall be governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 389, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) except as is otherwise provided in this Act.
(b) Any contract entered into under section 9, subsection (d) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187, 1193; 43 U. S. C., 1952 edition, sec. 458h) for payment of those portions of the costs of constructing, operating, and maintaining the Washoe reclamation project which are properly allocable to irrigation and drainage and which are assigned to be paid by the contracting organization may provide for the repayment of the portion of the construction cost of the project assigned to any project contract unit or, if the contract unit be divided into two or more irrigation or drainage blocks, to any such block over a period of not more than fifty years, exclusive of any permissible development period, or as near thereto as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full repayment within the period stated under normal conditions, permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to
pay: Provided, That any contract for a supplemental water supply for irrigation under this Act may omit provisions complying with the third sentence of paragraph (a) of section 46 of the Act of May 25, 1926 (44 Stat. 649) if such contract, in lieu of such provisions, provides that the pro rata share of the irrigation allocation which is attributable to furnishing irrigation benefits, in each particular year, to land held in private ownership by any one owner in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigated acres, shall be returned with interest determined in accordance with subparagraph (c) of this section, except that such payment for the excess lands shall not exceed an amount equal to the increased payment capacity of the excess lands, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, resulting from the supplemental water supply.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, all net revenues derived from the sale of commercial power from the Washoe reclamation project shall be applied, first, to the amortization of that portion of the cost of constructing the project which is allocated to commercial power with interest on the unamortized balance thereof at the average rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of the Treasury) paid by the United States on its marketable long-term securities outstanding on the date of this Act, and thereafter to the amortization of that portion of the cost of constructing the project which is allocated to irrigation but which is beyond the ability of the contracting irrigation organizations to repay as provided above, including interest that would have been paid by the irrigators on that portion of the irrigation allocation attributable to furnishing irrigation benefits to excess lands which is not repaid under section 2 (b) above: Provided, That the Secretary, prior to the delivery of project water supplies, shall have entered into a contract or contracts with an organization or organizations as defined in paragraph 2 (g) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187) which have the capacity to levy assessments upon all taxable real property located within their boundaries to assist in making repayments.
(d) Water users in Alpine County, California, shall have the opportunity to contract for project water made available by the Watasheamu Reservoir before such project water is offered for the development of any new land in Nevada. Should any such project water be contracted for by Alpine County water users, then in that event such users shall be permitted to exchange such water for existing rights to natural flow or stored water of the West Carson River.
(e) The use of waters of the Little Truckee River solely for the generation of electric power by the Washoe project shall not impair or preclude the appropriation of such waters in the future for beneficial consumptive use within the Little Truckee River watershed in California to the same extent as such waters may be presently available for such appropriation in the State of California: Provided, That if and when an interstate compact covering the distribution and use of the waters of the Truckee and Carson Rivers is approved by the Legislatures of the States of California and Nevada and is consented to by Congress, the operation of the Washoe reclamation project shall be in conformance with such compact, and the foregoing restriction shall not apply.
The Secretary is authorized to investigate, plan, construct, operate, and maintain minimum basic facilities for access to, and for the maintenance of public health and safety and the protection of public property on, lands withdrawn or acquired for the development of the Washoe project, to conserve the scenery and natural, historic, and archeologic objects, and to provide for public use and enjoyment of the same and of the water areas created by this project by such means as are consistent with its primary purposes. The Secretary is authorized to withdraw from entry or other disposition under the
public land laws such public lands as are necessary for the construction, operation, and maintenance of said minimum basic facilities and for the other purposes specified in this section and to dispose of such lands to Federal, State, and local governmental agencies by lease, transfer, exchange, or conveyance upon such terms and conditions as will best promote their development and operation in the public interest. The Secretary is further authorized to investigate the need for acquiring other lands for said purposes and to report thereon to the Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives, but no lands shall be acquired solely for any of these purposes other than access to project lands and the maintenance of public health and safety and the protection of public property thereon without further authorization by the Congress. All costs incurred pursuant to this section shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable.
Facilities shall be provided for the development of the fish and wildlife resources of the project area including facilities to permit increased minimum water releases from Lake Tahoe and restoration of the Pyramid Lake fishery. The cost of such facilities, including operation and maintenance, shall be nonreimbursable. The cost to the Federal Government of constructing these facilities shall not exceed $2,000,000. This amount shall not include the cost of measures undertaken, pursuant to section 2 of the Act of August 14, 1946 (60 Stat. 1080, 16 U. S. C. 661a), to mitigate damages to fish and wildlife resources occasioned by the Washoe project as authorized by section 1 of this Act.
There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for construction of the Washoe reclamation project the sum of $43,700,000 plus such amounts, if any, as may be required by reason of changes in construction costs as indicated by engineering cost indices applicable to the types of construction involved therein and, in addition thereto, such sums as may be required to operate and maintain the project: Provided, That the appropriation of funds for the construction, operation, or maintenance of facilities authorized by section 4 of this Act shall not be from the reclamation fund.
Approved, August 1, 1956.
