Title 25IndiansRelease 119-73

§385 Maintenance charges; reimbursement of construction costs; apportionment of cost

Title 25 › Chapter CHAPTER 11— - IRRIGATION OF ALLOTTED LANDS › § 385

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior may set maintenance fees for lands that can be irrigated under any irrigation or reclamation project. Payments collected must be used to maintain the project or system they came from. If tribes or individual Indians have enough money to repay the Government, amounts spent must be paid back under rules the Secretary makes. The Secretary must divide any construction costs that tribes must repay among individual Indians based on how much benefit each person gets, as practical, under those rules.

Full Legal Text

Title 25, §385

Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

For lands irrigable under any irrigation system or reclamation project the Secretary of the Interior may fix maintenance charges which shall be paid as he may direct, such payments to be available for use in maintaining the project or system for which collected: Provided further, That all moneys expended under this provision shall be reimbursable where the Indians have adequate funds to repay the Government, such reimbursements to be made under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to apportion the cost of any irrigation project constructed for Indians and made reimbursable out of tribal funds of said Indians in accordance with the benefits received by each individual Indian so far as practicable from said irrigation project, said cost to be apportioned against such individual Indian under such rules, regulations, and conditions as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is based on section 1 and 3 of act Apr. 4, 1910, and section 1 of act Aug. 1, 1914. A provision in act Aug. 1, 1914, appropriated a specific sum for the

Construction

, repair, etc., of ditches, reservoirs, etc., and for the pay of designated officials and employees.

Amendments

1982—Pub. L. 97–293 struck out provisions requiring Secretary of the Interior to transmit annual cost accounts to Congress of all moneys expended on each irrigation project. 1946—Act Aug. 7, 1946, discontinued provisions requiring Secretary of the Interior to transmit annual cost accounts to Congress of all moneys expended on each irrigation project.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

25 U.S.C. § 385

Title 25Indians

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73