PUBLIC LAW 99-655—NOV. 14, 1986
100 STAT. 3665
Public Law 99-655 99th Congress An Act Entitled the "Lower Colorado Water Supply Act".
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Nov. 14, 1986 [H.R. 5028] Contracts.
SECTION 1. AUTHORIZATION.
(a) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Lower Colorado Water Supply Project, California, in order to supply water for domestic, municipal, industrial, and recreational purposes only: Provided, That, the Secretary is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to contract with non-Federal interests for the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. Such project shall be constructed in stages as increases in demand warrant and substantially in accordance with the plans set forth in the document entitled "Lower Colorado Water Supply Study, California" (December 1985): Provided, That the Secretary is prohibited from constructing facilities with a total capacity in excess of ten thousand acre-feet per annum under authority of this Act. (b)(1) The Secretary is further authorized to enter into exchange contracts and take such actions as the Secretary deems appropriate to facilitate a water exchange agreement between non-Federal interests and those interests designated in section 2(b) of this Act in which such non-Federal interests agree to exchange a portion of their rights to divert water from the Colorado River for an equivalent quantity and quality of groundwater to be withdrawn from a well field located in the Sand Hills area. Imperial County, California, (2) The Secretary is prohibited from executing any contracts under the authority of subsection (b)(1) of this section until such contracts have been submitted to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and ninety calendar days have elapsed. SEC. 2. REPAYMENT OF COSTS.
(a) The Secretary is prohibited from obligating or expending any of the funds authorized to be appropriated by section 3 of this Act until— (1) a study has been completed, and submitted to the appropriate committees of the Congress, allocating among the Federal and non-Federal beneficiaries the capital costs and the costs of operating, maintaining, and replacing the project authorized by section 1 of this Act; (2) the Secretary has entered into a contract or contracts with non-Federal interests for repayment of the capital costs, plus interest, as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which the contract is executed, on the bsisis of the average market yields on outstanding
Regulations.
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