Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110
§832a General Administrative Provisions
Title 16 › CHAPTER 12B — BONNEVILLE PROJECT › § 832a
Summary
The administrator must sell and manage the electricity produced at the Bonneville project that is not needed to run the dam, locks, or navigation. The Secretary of Energy picks the administrator, who works for that Secretary and keeps the main office near the project. The administrator works with the Secretary of Energy and runs this office inside the Department of Energy. The setup is temporary until a permanent agency for Bonneville and other Columbia River Basin projects is created. The Secretary of the Army must add or keep generators and equipment when the administrator says they are needed, run the generating units on the administrator’s schedule, and give the administrator station space and the switches, instruments, dispatching gear, transformers, and other equipment needed to receive and send power. The administrator can build, operate, and improve transmission lines and substations to move power to markets and to connect with other Federal projects and public power systems built on or after August 20, 1937. The administrator can acquire land, rights, lines, substations, and other property in the name of the United States by buying, leasing, taking by condemnation, or accepting donations. The administrator can use eminent domain, including for patent rights, and start condemnation cases like for other real estate. The administrator can sell or lease personal property not needed and real property or transmission lines not needed, but must get the President’s approval before disposing of real property or transmission lines. The administrator can make, change, or end contracts, settle claims, and spend money as allowed by this law.
Full Legal Text
Title 16, §832a
Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)Appointment of Administrator; powers and duties
The electric energy generated in the operation of the said Bonneville project shall be disposed of by the said administrator as provided in this chapter. The administrator shall be appointed by the Secretary of Energy; shall be responsible to said Secretary of Energy; and shall maintain his principal office at a place selected by him in the vicinity of the Bonneville project. The Administrator shall, as in this chapter provided, make all arrangements for the sale and disposition of electric energy generated at Bonneville project not required for the operation of the dam and locks at such project and the navigation facilities employed in connection therewith. He shall act in consultation with the Secretary of Energy. The form of administration established in this chapter for the Bonneville project is intended to be provisional pending the establishment of a permanent administration for Bonneville and other projects in the Columbia River Basin. The Secretary of the Army shall install and maintain additional machinery, equipment, and facilities for the generation of electric energy at the Bonneville project when in the judgment of the administrator such additional generating facilities are desirable to meet actual or potential market requirements for such electric energy. The Secretary of the Army shall schedule the operations of the several electrical generating units and appurtenant equipment of the Bonneville project in accordance with the requirements of the administrator. The Secretary of the Army shall provide and maintain for the use of the administrator at said Bonneville project adequate station space and equipment, including such switches, switchboards, instruments, and dispatching facilities as may be required by the administrator for proper reception, handling, and dispatching of the electric energy produced at the said project, together with transformers and other equipment required by the administrator for the transmission of such energy from that place at suitable voltage to the markets which the administrator desires to serve. The office of the Administrator of the Bonneville project is constituted an office in the Department of Energy and shall be under the jurisdiction and control of the Secretary of Energy. All functions vested in the Administrator of the Bonneville project under this chapter may be exercised by the Secretary of Energy and, subject to his supervision and direction, by the Administrator and other personnel of the project.
(b)Electric transmission lines and equipment
In order to encourage the widest possible use of all electric energy that can be generated and marketed and to provide reasonable outlets therefor, and to prevent the monopolization thereof by limited groups, the administrator is authorized and directed to provide, construct, operate, maintain, and improve such electric transmission lines and substations, and facilities and structures appurtenant thereto, as he finds necessary, desirable, or appropriate for the purpose of transmitting electric energy, available for sale, from the Bonneville project to existing and potential markets, and, for the purpose of interchange of electric energy, to interconnect the Bonneville project with other Federal projects and publicly owned power systems constructed on or after August 20, 1937.
(c)Acquisition of property
The administrator is authorized, in the name of the United States, to acquire, by purchase, lease, condemnation, or donation, such real and personal property, or any interest therein, including lands, easements, rights-of-way, franchises, electric transmission lines, substations, and facilities and structures appurtenant thereto, as the administrator finds necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter. Title to all property and property rights acquired by the administrator shall be taken in the name of the United States.
(d)Condemnation
The administrator shall have power to acquire any property or property rights, including patent rights, which in his opinion are necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter, by the exercise of the right of eminent domain and to institute condemnation proceedings therefor in the same manner as is provided by law for the condemnation of real estate.
(e)Disposal of property
The administrator is authorized, in the name of the United States, to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of such personal property as in his judgment is not required for the purposes of this chapter and such real property and interests in land acquired in connection with construction or operation of electric transmission lines or substations as in his judgment are not required for the purposes of this chapter: Provided, however, That before the sale, lease, or disposition of real property or transmission lines, as herein provided, the administrator shall secure the approval of the President of the United States.
(f)Contracts
Subject only to the provisions of this chapter, the Administrator is authorized to enter into such contracts, agreements, and arrangements, including the amendment, modification, adjustment, or cancelation thereof and the compromise or final settlement of any claim arising thereunder, and to make such expenditures, upon such terms and conditions and in such manner as he may deem necessary.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification Provisions of the first par. of subsec. (a) which prescribed the compensation of the Administrator were omitted as compensation of the Administrator is prescribed by section 5316 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.
Amendments
1945—Subsec. (a). Act Oct. 23, 1945, § 5, struck out provisions relating to the appointment and compensation of an Assistant Administrator, chief engineer and general counsel and to the powers and duties of the Assistant Administrator. See section 832i of this title. Subsec. (f). Act Oct. 23, 1945, § 1, substituted “is authorized to enter into such contracts, agreements, and arrangements, including the amendment, modification, adjustment, or cancelation thereof and the compromise or final settlement of any claim arising thereunder, and to make such expenditures, upon such terms and conditions and in such manner as he may deem necessary” for “is authorized, in the name of the United States, to negotiate and enter into such contracts, agreements, and arrangements as he shall find necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter”. 1940—Subsec. (a). Act Mar. 6, 1940, inserted provisions relating to jurisdiction and functions of administrator.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Change of Name
Department of War designated Department of the Army and title of Secretary of War changed to Secretary of the Army by section 205(a) of act
July 26, 1947, ch. 343, title II, 61 Stat. 501. section 205(a) of act
July 26, 1947, was repealed by section 53 of act Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 641. section 1 of act Aug. 10, 1956, enacted “Title 10, Armed Forces” which in sections 3010 to 3013 continued military Department of the Army under administrative supervision of Secretary of the Army.
Repeals
Act Mar. 6, 1940, ch. 47, § 1, 54 Stat. 47, cited as a credit to this section, was repealed by Pub. L. 89–554, § 8(a), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 650.
Transfer of Functions
In subsec. (a), “Secretary of Energy” substituted for “Secretary of the Interior” in five places and “Department of Energy” substituted for “Department of the Interior” pursuant to Pub. L. 95–91, § 302(a)(1)(D), (2), which is classified to section 7152(a)(1)(D), (2) of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, and which transferred functions of Secretary of the Interior with respect to Bonneville Power Administration to Secretary of Energy, with Bonneville Power Administration to be preserved as a distinct organizational entity within Department of Energy and headed by an Administrator.
Executive Documents
Transfer of Functions
Provisions of the second sentence of the second par. of subsec. (a), which related to the advisory board and its composition, were omitted pursuant to Reorg. Plan No. 4 of 1965, §§ 11(c) and 13(a), set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees, which abolished the advisory board and transferred its functions, including the functions of the chairman and other officers, to the Secretary of the Interior. For
Transfer of Functions
of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 832a
Title 16, Conservation
Last Updated
Sep 23, 2026
Release point: 119-110