§959 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior can allow use of strips of public land (rights of way) across public lands, national forests, reservations, and the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant parks for things like electric plants and lines, telephone and telegraph lines, and water works (canals, pipes, tunnels, reservoirs) used for irrigation, mining, timber work, manufacturing, or supplying water for homes or the public. The permit covers the ground actually used and up to 50 feet on each side of a canal’s edge or of the center line of pipes or lines. Permits inside parks or other reservations need the approval of the agency head in charge and must not conflict with the public interest. Telephone and telegraph permits must follow title sixty-five of the Revised Statutes. Any permit can be revoked by the Secretary (or a later Secretary) and does not give a permanent right, easement, or ownership in the land.

Title 43, §959

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and hereby is, authorized and empowered, under general regulations to be fixed by him, to permit the use of rights of way through the public lands, forest and other reservations of the United States, and the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant national parks, California, for electrical plants, poles, and lines for the generation and distribution of electrical power, and for telephone and telegraph purposes, and for canals, ditches, pipes and pipe lines, flumes, tunnels, or other water conduits, and for water plants, dams, and reservoirs used to promote irrigation or mining or quarrying, or the manufacturing or cutting of timber or lumber, or the supplying of water for domestic, public, or any other beneficial uses to the extent of the ground occupied by such canals, ditches, flumes, tunnels, reservoirs, or other water conduits or water plants, or electrical or other works permitted hereunder, and not to exceed fifty feet on each side of the marginal limits thereof, or not to exceed fifty feet on each side of the center line of such pipes and pipe lines, electrical, telegraph, and telephone lines and poles, by any citizen, association, or corporation of the United States, where it is intended by such to exercise the use permitted hereunder or any one or more of the purposes herein named: Provided, That such permits shall be allowed within or through any of said parks or any forest, military, Indian, or other reservation only upon the approval of the chief officer of the Department under whose supervision such park or reservation falls and upon a finding by him that the same is not incompatible with the public interest: Provided further, That all permits given hereunder for telegraph and telephone purposes shall be subject to the provisions of title sixty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and amendments thereto, regulating rights of way for telegraph companies over the public domain: And provided further, That any permission given by the Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this Act may be revoked by him or his successor in his discretion, and shall not be held to confer any right, or easement, or interest in, to, or over any public land, reservation, or park.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Title sixty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and

Amendments

thereto, referred to in text, which consisted of R.S. §§ 5263 to 5269, was classified to sections 1 to 6 and 8 of Title 47, Telecommunications, and was repealed by act July 16, 1947, ch. 256, § 1, 61 Stat. 327. This Act, referred to in text, is act Feb. 15, 1901, ch. 372, 31 Stat. 790. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables. Codification Act Feb. 15, 1901, ch. 372, 31 Stat. 790, was also classified to section 79 and 522 of Title 16, Conservation, which have been omitted from the Code.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

General Grant National Park AbolishedAct Mar. 4, 1940, ch. 40, § 2, 54 Stat. 43, which is classified to section 80a of Title 16, Conservation, abolished the General Grant National Park and added the lands to the Kings Canyon National Park as the General Grant grove section.

Repeals

Section repealed by Pub. L. 94–579, title VII, § 706(a), Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2793, effective on and after Oct. 21, 1976, insofar as applicable to the issuance of rights-of-way over, upon, under, and through the public lands and lands in the National Forest System. For definition of “public lands” for purposes of Pub. L. 94–579, see section 1702(e) of this title. Section repealed by Pub. L. 113–287, § 7, Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 3272, insofar as applicable to units of the National Park System. See section 100902(a) of Title 54, National Park Service and Related Programs.

Savings Provision

Repeal by Pub. L. 94–579 insofar as applicable to the issuance of rights-of-way not to be construed as terminating any valid lease, permit, patent, etc., existing on Oct. 21, 1976, see section 701 of Pub. L. 94–579, set out as a note under section 1701 of this title.

§959 Rights of way for electrical plants, etc.