90 STAT. 1330
Privately owned lands, purchase,
Rules and regulations.
Interest rate.
,
Contracts.
Transfer of care, operation, and maintenance.
Permanent right of usage.
PUBLIC LAW 94^423—SEPT. 28, 1976 provisions of this title for the purposes of storing, regulating, and conveying water for municipal and industrial use, conserving and developing fish and wildlife resources, providing outdoor recreation opportunities, developing a scenic recreation area, developing a wildlife management area and controlling floods. The principal physical works of the project shall consist of a dam and reservoir on McGee Creek, appurtenant conveyance facilities and public outdoor recreation facilities. SEC. 702. To provide for the protection, preservation, use, and enjoyment by the general public of the scenic and esthetic values of the canyon area adjacent to the upper portion of the McGee Creek Reservoir, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to purchase privately owned lands, not to exceed twenty thousand acres, for the aforesaid scenic recreation and wildlife management areas. The Secretary of the Interior is also authorized to construct such facilities as he determines to be appropriate for utilization of the scenic and wildlife management areas for the safety, health, protection, and compatible use by the visiting public. SEC. 703. The Secretary of the Interior shall make such rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the provisions and intent of section 702 of this title and may enter into an agreement or agreements with a non-Federal public body or bodies for operation and maintenance of the scenic recreational and wildlife management areas. SEC. 704. The interest rate used for computing interest during construction and interest on the unpaid balance of the reimbursable costs of the project shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which construction of the project is commenced, on the basis of the computed average interest rate payable by the Treasury upon its outstanding marketable public obligations which are neither due nor callable for redemption for fifteen years from date of issue. SEC. 705. (a) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter into a contract with a qualified entity or entities, for delivery of water and for repayment of all the reimbursable construction costs. All costs of acquiring, developing, operating, and maintaining the scenic recreation and wildlife management areas authorized by section 702 of this title shall be nonreimbursable. (b) Construction of the project shall not be commenced until the contracts and agreements required by this title have been entered into. (c) Upon execution of the contract referred to in section 705(a) of this title, and upon completion of construction of the project, the Secretary of the Interior shall transfer to a qualified contracting entity or entities the care, operation, and maintenance of the project works; and, after such transfer is made, will reimburse, subject to such amounts as may be provided in the appropriation Acts, the contractor annually for that portion of the year's operation and maintenance costs, which, if the United States had continued to operate the project, would have been nonreimbursable. Prior to assuming care, operation, and maintenance of the project works the contracting entity or entities shall agree to operate them in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Army with respect to flood control, and by the Secretary of the Interior with respect to fish, wildlife, and recreation. (d) Upon execution of the contract referred to in section 705(a) of this title, and upon completion of construction of the project, the contracting entity or entities, their designee or designees, shall have a permanent right to use the reservoir and related facilities of the McGee Creek project in accordance with said contract.
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