720
Report to Congress.
Payments to T r i n i t y County, Calif.
Payments 1.0 p u b l i o s c h o o l districts.
PUBLIC LAW 386-AUG. 12, 1955
[69 ST A T.
costs of constructing the Trinity River development and of operating and maintaining the same, such costs to be non-reimbursable: Provided further, That not less than 50,000 acre-feet shall be released annually from the Trinity Reservoir and made available to Humboldt County and downstream water users. SEC. 3. 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for access to, and for the maintenance of public health and safety and the protection of public property on, lands withdrawn or acquired for the development of the Trinity River division, to conserve the scenery and the natural, historic, and archeologic objects, and to provide for public use and enjoyment of the same and of the water areas created by these developments by such means as are consistent with their 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. SEC. 4. Contracts for the sale and delivery of the additional electric energy available from the Central Valley project power system as a result of the construction of the plants herein authorized and their integration with that system shall be made in accordance with preferences expressed in the Federal reclamation laws: Provided, That a first preference, to the extent of 25 per centum of such additional energy, shall be given, under reclamation law, to preference customers in Trinity County, California, for use in that county, who are ready, able and willing, within twelve months after notice of availability by the Secretary, to enter into contracts for the energy: Provided further, That Trinity County preference customers may exercise their option on the same date in each successive fifth year providing written notice of their intention to use the energy is given to the Secretary not less than eighteen months prior to said date. SEC. 5. The Secretary is authorized to make payments, from construction appropriations, to Trinity County, California, of such additional costs of repairing, maintaining, and constructing county roads as are incurred by it during the period of actual construction of the Trinity River division and as are found by the Secretary to be properly attributable to and occasioned by said construction. The Secretary is further authorized and directed to pay to Trinity County annually an in-lieu tax payment out of the appropriations during construction and from the gross revenues of the project during operation an amount equal to the annual tax rate of the county applied to the value of the real property and improvements taken for project purposes in Trinity County, said value being determined as of the date such property and improvements are taken off the tax rolls. Payments to the public-school districts in the project area affected by construction activities shall be made pursuant to existing law.
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