§590z–1 Prerequisites for Construction of Project

Summary

Before any project can be built under this law, the Secretary must investigate it and send a report to the President. The report must say whether the engineering will work, what the project will probably cost, and how that cost should be divided — for irrigation, the part water users can repay under section 590z–2, the part for municipal or other water and for power that could return money, the part for irrigating Indian trust and tribal lands under existing Indian law, and any flood-control share after talking with the Chief of Engineers, Department of the Army. No actual construction can start until the Secretary finds that needed land or land rights are bought or likely to be bought with satisfactory titles and prices, and that required water rights are acquired or are in process and can be perfected and used under State law and any interstate agreements. The Secretary may split a project into divisions after consulting the Secretary of Agriculture. Projects funded under the 1940 water conservation appropriation (Interior Department Appropriation Act, 1940, ch. 119, 53 Stat. 685) can be made projects under this law by agreement with the Agriculture Secretary, but they are not subject to the report and land/water rules in subsections (a) and (b).