[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 125 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 125

 To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to 
provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other 
    uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 2005

 Mr. Issa (for himself and Mr. Calvert) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on Resources, and in addition to 
   the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to 
provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other 
    uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. 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).

SEC. 2. 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.

SEC. 3. 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.

SEC. 4. 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.

SEC. 5. 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.

SEC. 6. 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.

SEC. 7. 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.

SEC. 8. 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.

SEC. 9. 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.

SEC. 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.
                                 <all>