Home > 105th Congressional Bills > H.R. 4389 (rh) To provide for the conveyance of various reclamation project facilities to local water authorities, and for other purposes. ...H.R. 4389 (rh) To provide for the conveyance of various reclamation project facilities to local water authorities, and for other purposes. ...
108th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4389
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to
provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other
uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 19, 2004
Mr. Issa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Armed
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
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A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to
provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other
uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) District.--The term ``District'' means the Fallbrook
Public Utility District, San Diego County, California.
(2) Project.--The term ``Project'' means the impoundment,
recharge, treatment, and other facilities the construction,
operation, and maintenance of which is authorized under
subsection (b).
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR CONSTRUCTION OF LOWER SANTA MARGARITA
CONJUNCTIVE USE PROJECT.
(a) Authorization.--The Secretary, acting pursuant to the Federal
reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902; 32 Stat. 388), and Acts
amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, as far as those laws are
not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, is authorized to
construct, operate, and maintain to make the yield of the Lower Santa
Margarita Conjunctive Use Project to be located below the confluence of
De Luz Creek with the Santa Margarita River on Camp Joseph H.
Pendleton, the Fallbrook Annex of the Naval Weapons Station, and
surrounding lands within the service area of the District available for
irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses for the
District and such other users as herein provided.
(b) Conditions.--The Secretary of the Interior may construct the
Project only after the Secretary of the Interior determines that the
following conditions have occurred:
(1) The District has entered into a contract under section
9(d) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 to repay to the
United States appropriate portions, as determined by the
Secretary, of the actual costs of constructing, operating, and
maintaining the Project, together with interest as hereinafter
provided.
(2) The officer or agency of the State of California
authorized by law to grant permits for the appropriation of
water has granted such permits to the Bureau of Reclamation for
the benefit of the Department of the Navy and the District as
permitees for rights to the use of water for storage and
diversion as provided in this Act, including approval of all
requisite changes in points of diversion and storage, and
purposes and places of use.
(3) The District has agreed that it will not assert against
the United States any prior appropriative right the District
may have to water in excess of the quantity deliverable to it
under this Act, and will share in the use of the waters
impounded by the Project on the basis of equal priority and in
accordance with the ratio prescribed in section 4(b). This
agreement and waiver and the changes in points of diversion and
storage under paragraph (2), shall become effective and binding
only when the Project has been completed and put into
operation.
(4) The Secretary of the Interior has determined that the
Project has economic and engineering feasibility.
SEC. 3. COSTS.
The Department of the Navy shall not be responsible for any costs
in connection with the Project, except upon completion and then shall
be charged in reasonable proportion to its use of the Project under
regulations agreed upon by the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of
the Interior.
SEC. 4. OPERATION; YIELD ALLOTMENT; DELIVERY.
(a) Operation.--The operation of the Project may be by the
Secretary of the Interior or otherwise as agreed upon by the
Secretaries of the Interior and the Navy and the District, under
regulations satisfactory to the Secretary of the Navy with respect to
the Navy's share of the impounded water and national security.
(b) Yield Allotment.--Except as otherwise agreed between the
parties, the Department of the Navy and the District shall participate
in the water impounded by the Project on the basis of equal priority
and in accordance with the following ratio:
(1) 60 percent of the Project's yield is allotted to the
Secretary of the Navy.
(2) 40 percent of the Project's yield is allotted to the
District.
(c) Contracts for Delivery of Water.--
(1) In general.--If the Secretary of the Navy certifies
that the Secretary does not have immediate need for any portion
of the 60 percent yield allotted under subsection (b), the
official agreed upon to administer the Project may enter into
temporary contracts for the delivery of the excess water.
(2) First right for excess water.--The first right of the
Secretary of the Navy to demand that water without charge and
without obligation on the part of the United States after 30
days notice shall be included as a condition of contracts
entered into under this subsection. The first right to water
available under paragraph (1) shall be given the District, if
otherwise consistent with the laws of the State of California.
(3) Disposition of funds.--Moneys paid in to the United
States under a contract under this subsection shall be covered
into the general Treasury or to the Secretary of the Navy, as
services in lieu of payment for operation and maintenance of
the Project, and shall not be applied against the indebtedness
of the District to the United States.
(4) Modification of rights and obligations related to water
yield.--The rights and obligations of the United States and the
District regarding the ratio or amounts of Project yield
delivered may be modified by an agreement between the parties.
SEC. 5. REPAYMENT OBLIGATION OF THE DISTRICT.
(a) In General.--The general repayment obligation of the District
(which shall include interest on the unamortized balance of
construction costs of the Project allocated to municipal and domestic
waters at a rate equal to the average rate, which rate shall be
certified by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the long-term loans of
the United States outstanding on the date of this Act) to be undertaken
pursuant to section 2 shall be spread in annual installments, which
need not be equal, over a period of not more than 56 years, exclusive
of the development period, or as near thereto as is consistent with the
operation of a formula, mutually agreeable to the parties, under which
the payments are varied in the light of factors pertinent to the
irrigators' ability to pay.
(b) Development Period.--The development period shall begin in the
year in which water for use by the District is first available, as
announced by the Secretary of the Interior or the Treasury, and shall
end in the year in which the Project's yield to the District exceeds
6,000 acre-feet per annum. During the development period water shall be
delivered to the District under annual water rental notices at rates
fixed by the Secretary of the Interior or the Treasury and payable in
advance, and any moneys collected in excess of operation and
maintenance costs shall be credited to repayment of the capital costs
chargeable to the District and the repayment period fixed herein shall
be reduced proportionately.
(c) Modification of Rights and Obligation by Agreement.--The rights
and obligations of the United States and the District regarding the
repayment obligation of the District may be modified by an agreement
between the parties.
SEC. 6. TRANSFER OF CARE, OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE.
The Secretary may transfer to the District, or a mutually agreed
upon third party, the care, operation, and maintenance of the Project
under conditions satisfactory to that Secretary and the District, and
with respect to the portion of the Project that is located within the
boundaries of Camp Pendleton, satisfactory also to the Secretary of the
Navy. If such a transfer takes place, the District shall be entitled to
an equitable credit for the costs associated with the Secretary's
proportionate share of the operation and maintenance of the Project.
The amount of such costs shall be applied against the indebtedness of
the District to the United States.
SEC. 7. SCOPE OF ACT.
For the purpose of this Act, the basis, measure, and limit of all
rights of the United States pertaining to the use of water shall be the
laws of the State of California. That nothing in this Act shall be
construed--
(1) as a grant or a relinquishment by the United States of
any rights to the use of water that it acquired according to
the laws of the State of California, either as a result of its
acquisition of the lands comprising Camp Joseph H. Pendleton
and adjoining naval installations, and the rights to the use of
water as a part of that acquisition, or through actual use or
prescription or both since the date of that acquisition, if
any;
(2) to create any legal obligation to store any water in
the Project, to the use of which the United States has such
rights;
(3) to constitute a recognition of, or an admission that,
the District has any rights to the use of water in the Santa
Margarita River, which rights, if any, exist only by virtue of
the laws of the State of California; or
(4) to require the division under this Act of water to
which the United States has such rights.
SEC. 8. LIMITATIONS ON OPERATION AND ADMINISTRATION.
Unless otherwise agreed by the Secretary of the Navy, the Project--
(1) shall be operated in a manner which allows the free
passage of all of the water to the use of which the United
States is entitled according to the laws of the State of
California either as a result of its acquisition of the lands
comprising Camp Joseph H. Pendleton and adjoining naval
installations, and the rights to the use of water as a part of
those acquisitions, or through actual use or prescription, or
both, since the date of that acquisition, if any; and
(2) shall not be administered or operated in any way which
will impair or deplete the quantities of water the use of which
the United States would be entitled under the laws of the State
of California had the Project not been built.
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the
Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, the
following:
(1) $60,000,000 (the current estimated construction cost of
the Project, plus or minus such amounts as may be indicated by
the engineering cost indices for this type of construction);
and
(2) such sums as may be required to operate and maintain
the said project.
SEC. 10. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act
and periodically thereafter, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the
Interior, and the Secretary of the Navy shall each report to the
Congress regarding if the conditions specified in section 2(b) have
been met and if so, the details of how they were met.
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