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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.