Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 82.djvu/896

 854

43 USC 485h. Interest rate; determination by Secretary.

Transfer of operation.

43 USC 390a.

16 USC 460Z note. Appropriation.

PUBLIC LAW 90-503-SEPT. 21, 1968

[82 STAT.

to its requirements, but revenues therefrom shall be used only for payment of operation and maintenance costs, interest, and retirement of the obligation assumed in the contract. Contracts may be entered into with water users' organizations pursuant to the provisions of this Act without regard to the last sentence of subsection 9(c) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187). (b) The interest rate used for computing interest during construction and interest on the unpaid balance of the costs of the project allocated to municipal water supply shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which construction is conmienced, on the basis of the computed average interest rate payable by the Treasury upon its outstanding marketable public obligations which are neither due nor callable for redemption for fifteen years from date of issue, and by adjusting such interest rate to the nearest multiple of one-eighth of 1 per centum if the computed average interest rate is not a multiple of one-eighth of 1 per centum. SEC. 3. The Secretary is authorized to transfer to a water users' organization the care, operation, and maintenance of the project works, and, if such transfer is made to credit annually against the organization's repayment obligation that portion of the year's operation and maintenance costs which, if the United States had continued to operate the project, would have been allocated to flood control, fish and wildlife, and recreation purposes. Prior to assuming care, operation, and maintenance of the project works the water users' organization shall obligate itself to operate them in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Army with respect to flood control, and by the Secretary of the Interior with respect to fish and wildlife and recreation. Upon complete payment of the obligation assumed, the water users' organization, its designee or designee.s, shall be conveyed title to such portions of the aqueducts and related facilities as are used solely for delivering project water to water users, and shall have a permanent right to use that portion of project reservoir capacity which is or may be allocated to municipal and industrial water supply purposes by the Secretary of the Interior, so long as the space designated for those purposes may be physically available, taking into account such equitable reallocation of reservoir storage capacities among the purposes to be served by the project as may be necessary due to sedimentation, subject, if the project is then operated by the United States, to payment to the United States of a reasonable annual charge to cover operation and maintenance costs and a fair share of administrative costs applicable to the project. SEC. 4. Expenditures for the Mountain Park project may be made without regard to the soil survey and land classification requirements of the Interior Department Appropriation Act of 1954 (67 Stat 266). SEC. 5. The conservation and development of the fish and wildlife resources and the enhancement of recreation opportunities in connection with the Mountain Park reclamation project shall be in accordance with the Federal Water Project Recreation Act (79 Stat. 213) p SEC. 6. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for construction of the Mountain Park Reclamation Project the sum of $19,978,000 (January 1965 prices), plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in construction costs as indicated by engineering cost indexes applicable to the type of construction involved herein. There are also authorized to oe appropriated such additional sums as may be required for the operation and maintenance of the project. Approved September 21, 1968.

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