§1572 Canal or canal lining

Summary

Authorize the Secretary to build a new concrete-lined canal or to line about forty-nine miles of the unlined part of the Coachella Canal to help meet the salinity control goals of Minute No. 242. The United States may temporarily use the same amount of water that is saved by the lining. That temporary period starts when the work is finished and ends the first year the Secretary delivers less main Colorado River water to California than the total requested by California agencies under their contracts and by federal users claiming rights under the Supreme Court decree in Arizona v. California (376 U.S. 340). Construction costs must be paid back without interest in equal yearly payments over forty years, starting the year after work ends, with the United States and the Coachella Valley County Water District sharing the payments under a repayment contract. The Secretary may buy or take private lands on the Imperial East Mesa that get or have rights to water from Imperial Irrigation District’s Coachella Canal capacity; those costs are not repaid and no water rights are taken. The Secretary can credit Imperial Irrigation District for capacity it gives up because of lining, without changing how All-American Canal operation and maintenance costs are split. The Secretary must also transfer specific parcels (Township 9 South, Range 25 West, Gila and Salt River meridian, Arizona: Section 25: Lots 18–23; Section 26: Lots 1, 12–15; Section 27: Lot 3, and all accretion) to the Cocopah Tribe to be held in trust, build three bridges (one for heavy vehicles) over the bypass drain on the reservation, and those actions fully pay the tribe for required rights-of-way for the bypass drain and electrical lines.