§1572 Canal or Canal Lining

Summary

Authorizes the Secretary to build a new concrete-lined canal or line about 49 miles of the unlined Coachella Canal (from station 2+26 to the start of siphon No. 7) to help meet the salinity control goals of Minute No. 242. The United States may temporarily use the water saved by that canal during an “interim period” that starts when the work is finished and ends the first year the Secretary delivers less Colorado River water to California than the total amounts requested by (1) California agencies under contracts under 43 U.S.C. 617d and (2) federal users under their rights recognized in Arizona v. California (376 U.S. 340). Construction costs must be paid back without interest in equal yearly payments over 40 years, starting the year after construction ends. Repayment is split between the United States and the Coachella Valley County Water District, and the Secretary can make a repayment contract with that district. Annual payments won’t be reimbursable during the interim period, and after that period the district will pay the payments or parts of them as agreed. The Secretary may buy, condemn, or exchange private lands on the Imperial East Mesa in the Imperial Irrigation District that have rights to water from IID’s Coachella Canal capacity; those costs are nonreimbursable, the lands go back to the public domain, and no water rights transfer to the United States. The Secretary may credit Imperial Irrigation District against final construction charges for canal capacity the district gives up because of the lining; giving up capacity does not change how All‑American Canal operation and maintenance costs are shared. The Secretary must transfer specified lands (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 in trust, subject to existing levee rights‑of‑way, and build three bridges over the bypass drain on the reservation (one strong enough for heavy vehicles). That land transfer and the bridges count as full payment to the tribe for the rights‑of‑way needed for the bypass drain and electrical transmission lines under this subchapter.