§617h Lands capable of irrigation and reclamation by irrigation works; public entry; preferences

Summary

Lands found suitable for irrigation and set aside under the 1946 Act must be opened for people to claim in parcels no larger than 160 acres, as the Secretary of the Interior decides. People who take the land must pay a fair share of the canal and related construction costs, as set by the Secretary, in installments under the reclamation law; those payments go into the project fund. People who served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard during World War II, the War with Germany, the War with Spain, or the Philippine insurrection — and who were honorably discharged or placed in the Regular Army or Naval Reserve — get an exclusive three-month first chance to claim these lands, subject to section 433. Veterans should also be preferred for related construction work when possible. The same veteran priority applies to settlers watered by the Gila canal in Arizona and the All‑American canal in California. If a claim is given up before the claimant has lived on the land for one year, the land cannot be claimed by others for 60 days after the relinquishment is recorded; after 60 days it reopens with the same veteran priority.