43 U.S.C. § 1592 : US Code - Section 1592: Authorization to construct, operate, and maintain salinity control units and salinity control program

Search 43 U.S.C. § 1592 : US Code - Section 1592: Authorization to construct, operate, and maintain salinity control units and salinity control program

(a) Authority of Secretary
The Secretary is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain
the following salinity control units and salinity control program
as the initial stage of the Colorado River Basin salinity control
program:
(1) The Paradox Valley unit, Montrose County, Colorado,
consisting of facilities for collection and disposition of saline
ground water of Paradox Valley, including wells, pumps, pipelines,
solar evaporation ponds, and all necessary appurtenant and
associated works such as roads, fences, dikes, power transmission
facilities, and permanent operating facilities, and consisting of
measures to replace incidental fish and wildlife values foregone.
(2) The Grand Valley unit, Colorado, consisting of measures and
all necessary appurtenant and associated works to reduce the
seepage of irrigation water from the irrigated lands of Grand
Valley into the ground water and thence into the Colorado River.
Measures shall include lining of canals and laterals, replacing
canals and laterals with pipe, and the combining of existing canals
and laterals into fewer and more efficient facilities implementing
other measures to reduce salt contributions from the Grand Valley
to the Colorado River, and implementing measures to replace
incidental fish and wildlife values foregone..(!1) Prior to
initiation of construction of the Grand Valley unit, or portion
thereof, the Secretary shall enter into contracts through which the
non-Federal entities owning, operating, and maintaining the water
distribution systems, or portions thereof, in Grand Valley, singly
or in concert, will assume the obligations specified in subsection
(b)(2) of this section relating to the continued operation and
maintenance of the unit's facilities to the end that the maximum
reduction of salinity inflow to the Colorado River will be
achieved.
(3) The Las Vegas Wash unit, Nevada, consisting of facilities for
collection and disposition of saline ground water of Las Vegas
Wash, including infiltration galleries, pumps, desalter, pipelines,
solar evaporation facilities, and all appurtenant works including
but not limited to roads, fences, power transmission facilities,
and operating facilities, and consisting of measures to replace
incidental fish and wildlife values foregone.
(4) Stage I of the Lower Gunnison Basin unit, Colorado,
consisting of measures and all necessary appurtenant and associated
works to reduce seepage from canals and laterals in the Uncompahgre
Valley, and consisting of measures to replace incidental fish and
wildlife values foregone, essentially as described in the
feasibility report and final environmental statement dated February
10, 1984. Prior to initiation of construction of stage I of the
Lower Gunnison Basin unit, or of a portion of stage I, the
Secretary shall enter into contracts through which the non-Federal
entities owning, operating, and maintaining the water distribution
systems, or portions thereof, in the Uncompahgre Valley, singly or
in concert, will assume the obligations specified in subsection
(b)(2) of this section relating to the continued operation and
maintenance of the unit's facilities.
(5) Portions of the McElmo Creek unit, Colorado, as components of
the Dolores participating project, Colorado River Storage project,
authorized by Public Law 90-537 [43 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.] and Public
Law 84-485 [43 U.S.C. 620 et seq.], consisting of all measures and
all necessary appurtenant and associated works to reduce seepage
only from the Towaoc-Highline combined canal, Rocky Ford laterals,
Lone Pine lateral, and Upper Hermana lateral, and consisting of
measures to replace incidental fish and wildlife values foregone.
The Dolores participating project shall have salinity control as a
project purpose insofar as these specific facilities are concerned:
Provided, That the costs of construction and replacement of these
specific facilities shall be allocated by the Secretary to salinity
control and irrigation only after consultation with the State of
Colorado, the Montezuma Valley Irrigation District, Colorado, and
the Dolores Water Conservancy District, Colorado: And provided
further, That such allocation of costs to salinity control will
include only the separable and specific costs of these specific
facilities and will not include any joint costs of any other
facilities of the Dolores participating project. Repayment of costs
allocated to salinity control shall be subject to this chapter.
Repayment of costs allocated to irrigation shall be subject to the
Acts which authorized the Dolores participating project, the
Reclamation Act of 1902, and Acts amendatory and supplementary
thereto. Prior to initiation of construction of these specific
facilities, or a portion thereof, the Secretary shall enter into
contracts through which the non-Federal entities owning, operating,
and maintaining the water distribution systems, or portions
thereof, in the Montezuma Valley, singly or in concert, will assume
the obligations specified in subsection (b)(2) of this section
relating to the continued operation and maintenance of the unit's
facilities.
(6) A basinwide salinity control program that the Secretary,
acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, shall implement. The
Secretary may carry out the purposes of this paragraph directly, or
may make grants, commitments for grants, or advances of funds to
non-Federal entities under such terms and conditions as the
Secretary may require. Such program shall consist of cost-effective
measures and associated works to reduce salinity from saline
springs, leaking wells, irrigation sources, industrial sources,
erosion of public and private land, or other sources that the
Secretary considers appropriate. Such program shall provide for the
mitigation of incidental fish and wildlife values that are lost as
a result of the measures and associated works. The Secretary shall
submit a planning report concerning the program established under
this paragraph to the appropriate committees of Congress. The
Secretary may not expend funds for any implementation measure under
the program established under this paragraph before the expiration
of a 30-day period beginning on the date on which the Secretary
submits such report.
(b) Implementation of authorized units
In implementing the units authorized to be constructed pursuant
to subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall carry out
the following directions:
(1) As reports are completed describing final implementation
plans for the unit, or any portion thereof, authorized by
paragraph (5) of subsection (a) of this section, and prior to
expenditure of funds for related construction activities, the
Secretary shall submit such reports to the appropriate committees
of the Congress and to the governors of the Colorado River Basin
States.
(2) Non-Federal entities shall be required by the Secretary to
contract for the long-term operation and maintenance of canal and
lateral systems constructed pursuant to activities provided for
in subsection (a) of this section: Provided, That the Secretary
shall reimburse such non-Federal entities for the costs of such
operation and maintenance to the extent the costs exceed the
expenses that would have been incurred by them in the thorough
and timely operation and maintenance of their canal and lateral
systems absent the construction of a unit, said expenses to be
determined by the Secretary after consultation with the involved
non-Federal entities. The operation and maintenance for which non-
Federal entities shall be responsible shall include such
repairing and replacing of a unit's facilities as are associated
with normal annual maintenance activities in order to keep such
facilities in a condition which will assure maximum reduction of
salinity inflow to the Colorado River. These non-Federal entities
shall not be responsible, nor incur any costs, for the
replacement of a unit's facilities, including measures to replace
incidental fish and wildlife values foregone. The term
replacement shall be defined for the purposes of this subchapter
as a major modification or reconstruction of a completed unit, or
portion thereof, which is necessitated, through no fault of the
non-Federal entity or entities operating and maintaining a unit,
by design or construction inadequacies or by normal limits on the
useful life of a facility. The Secretary is authorized to provide
continuing technical assistance to non-Federal entities to assure
the effective and efficient operation and maintenance of a unit's
facilities.
(3) The Secretary may, under authority of this subchapter, and
limited to the purposes of this chapter, fund through a grant or
contract, for any fiscal year only to such extent or in such
amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts, a non-Federal
entity to organize private canal and lateral owners into formal
organizations with which the Secretary may enter into a grant or
contract to construct, operate, and maintain a unit's facilities.
(4) In implementing the units authorized to be constructed or
the program pursuant to paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and
(6) of subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall comply
with procedural and substantive State water laws.
(5) The Secretary may, under authority of this subchapter and
limited to the purposes of this chapter, fund through a grant or
contract, for any fiscal year only to such extent or in such
amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts, a non-Federal
entity to operate and maintain measures to replace incidental
fish and wildlife values foregone.
(6) In implementing the units authorized to be constructed
pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall
implement measures to replace incidental fish and wildlife values
foregone concurrently with the implementation of a unit's, or a
portion of a unit's, related features.
(c) Salinity control measures
The Secretary of Agriculture shall carry out salinity control
measures (including watershed enhancement and cost-share measures
with livestock and crop producers) in the Colorado River Basin as
part of the environmental quality incentives program established
under chapter 4 of subtitle D of title XII of the Food Security Act
of 1985 [16 U.S.C. 3839aa et seq.].