§683 Tax on operation of hydraulic mines; “debris fund”; advances by mine owners; storage for water and use of outlet facilities

Summary

When the California Debris Commission builds dams or reservoirs to catch debris from hydraulic mining and gives someone permission to mine by hydraulic methods, the mine operator must pay a yearly tax for each cubic yard taken from the natural bank. The tax rate is the full cost to build the dam, reservoir, and rights‑of‑way divided by the reservoir’s debris capacity, with those numbers set by the California Debris Commission. The commission sets the payment date. The Secretary of the Treasury makes the rules for payments, and the U.S. Treasurer can receive the money. All payments go into a "debris fund." The commission, under the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of the Army, uses that fund to repay federal or other advances for building the works and to pay for maintenance. Mine owners may advance money to help build the works, and those advances are refunded as the tax is paid into the debris fund. The United States is not liable to repay except as this rule says. The Secretary of the Army may sell water storage or outlet use from these reservoirs for domestic, irrigation, or power purposes; money from those sales must go to the reservoir project and will reduce the reservoir’s repayable cost.