Title 43 › Chapter CHAPTER 32— - COLORADO RIVER BASIN PROJECT › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - AUTHORIZED UNITS; PROTECTION OF EXISTING USES › § 1524
Central Arizona Project (CAP) water must not be used to irrigate land that has not been recently irrigated, unless the land is Indian land, a national wildlife refuge, or a state wildlife management area approved by the Secretary. In Arizona, CAP irrigation and city/industry water can be handled by master contracts with organizations that can assess taxable property in their areas if the Secretary finds that necessary to repay costs. The Secretary must approve the terms, and the United States can require being a party to those contracts or to separate contracts with users. That requirement does not apply to water supplied to an Indian tribe for use on a reservation. Payment and delivery deals may run up to 50 years. Long-term irrigation contracts can let the Secretary convert unused irrigation water to municipal or industrial use. Contracts must include steps to limit new pumping from aquifers affected by the project and must require lined canals and distribution systems after federal delivery to avoid big water losses. All CAP contracts stay behind earlier contracts made under the Boulder Canyon Project Act. The Secretary may make users accept main-stream water instead of other supplies, and must do so for Arizona users who also take Gila River water when needed to let New Mexico users get more water under the rules below, without causing economic harm to Arizona users. If there is a shortage, users who traded away other water to get CAP water get first right to receive CAP water back, but only enough to replace what they gave up. The Secretary must offer contracts to New Mexico (through its Interstate Stream Commission) for Gila River and related groundwater so New Mexico consumptive use does not average more than 14,000 acre-feet per year over any 10-year period above what Arizona v. California provides. Those extra uses continue only while Colorado River deliveries to downstream Gila users in Arizona are replaced as required. These extra uses are subject to prior rights established by the June 29, 1935 decree in United States v. Gila Valley Irrigation District and to all rights existing on September 30, 1968, and are junior and allowed only without economic injury or cost to those earlier rights holders.
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Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
43 U.S.C. § 1524
Title 43 — Public Lands
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73