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JUL 6 1962 UPPER COLORADO RIVER COMMISSION lalt Lake City, Utah 87THCONGRESS 2o SESSIONH R
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IN THE SENL\_TE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 14, 1962
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Interior and Insular ..A.ff airs
AN ACT
To authorize the construction, operation, and maintenance by the Secretary of the Interior of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project, Colorado.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represe
nta-2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That for the purposes of supplying "'.'ater for irrigation, mu-4 nicipal, domestic, and industrial uses, generating and
trans-5 mitting hydroelectric power and energy, and controlling
6 floods, and for other useful and beneficial purposes incidental 7 thereto, including recreation and the conservation and
devel-8 opment of fish and wildlife, the Secretary of the Interior is 9 authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Frying-10 pan-Arkansas project, Colorado, in substantial accordance
1 with the engineering plans therefor set forth in House
Docu-2 ment Numbered 187, Eighty-third Congress, modified as
3 proposed in the September 1959 report of the Bureau of
4 Reclamation entitled "Ruedi Dam and Reservoir, Colorado",
5 with such minor modifications of, omissions from, or
addi-6 tions to the works described in those reports as he may find 7 necessary or proper for accomplishing the objectives of the
8 project. Snch modifications or additions as may be required
9 in connection therewith shall not, however, extend to or
10 contemplate the so-called Gunnison-Arkansas project; and
11 nothing in this Act shall constitute a commitment, real or
12 implied, to exportations of water from the Colorado River
13 system in Colorado beyond those required for projects
here-14 tofore or herein authorized. In constructing, operating, and
15 maintaining the Fryingpan-Arkansas project, the Secretary
16 shall be governed by the Federal reclamation laws (Act of
17 June 17, 1902; 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof
18 or supplementary thereto) .
-19 ( b) A reservoir at the Ruedi site on the Fryingpan
20 River with an active capacity of approximately one hundred
21 thousand acre-feet shall be constructed in lieu of the
res-22 ervoir on the Roaring Fork River at the Aspen site contem-23 plated in House Document Numbered 187, Eighty-third
24 Congress. The Secretary shall investigate and prepare a re-25 port on the feasibility of a replacement reservoir at or near
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1 the Ashcroft site on Castle Creek, a tributary of the
2 Roaring Fork River above its confluence with the Frying-3 pan River with a capacity of approximately fiye thousand 4 acre-feet, but construction thereof shall not be commenced 5 unless said report, which shall be submitted to the
6 President and the Congress, demonstrates the feasibility 7 of said reservoir and is approved by the Congress. The 8 Secretary shall expedite completion of his planning report
9 on the Basalt project, Colorado, as a participating proj-10 ect under the Act of April 11, 1956 (70 Stat. 105), and 11 said report shall have the priority status of the reports to 12 which reference is made in section 2 of said Act.
13 ( c) No part of the single purpose municipal and indus-14 trial water supply works involved in the Fryingpan-Arkansas
15 project shall be constructed by the Secretary in the absence 16 of evidence satisfactory to him that it would be infeasible for 17 the communities involYed to construct the works themselves,
18 singly or jointly. In the event it is determined that these
19 works, OT any of them, are to be constructed by the Secre-20 tary, a contract providing, among other things, for payment 21 of the actual cost thereof, with interest as hereinafter
pro-22 vided, as rapidly as is consistent with the contracting parties' 23 ability to pay, but in any event, within fifty years from the 24 time the works are first available for the delivery of water,
1 operation, maintenance, and replacement of the works shall
2 be a condition precedent to construction thereof.
3 SEC. 2. (a) Contracts to repay the portion of the cost
4 of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project allocated to irrigation
5 and assigned to be repaid by irrigation water users (
ex-6 elusive of such portion of said cost as may be derived from
7 temporary water supply contracts or from other sources)
8 which are entered into pursuant to subsection ( d), section 9,
9 of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 ( 53 Stat. 1187) ,
10 as amended, shall provide for a basic repayment period of
11 not more than fifty years after completion of construction
12 and shall not provide for any development period. Such
13 contracts shall be entered into only with organizations which
14 have the capacity to levy assessments upon all taxable real
15 property located within their boundaries.
16 (b) Rates charged for commercial power and for water
17 for municipal, domestic or industrial use or for the use of
18 facilities for the storage and/ or delivery of such water shall
19 be designed to return to the United States, within not more
20 than fifty years from the completion of each unit of the
21 project which serves those purposes, those costs of
construct-22 ing, operating and maintaining that unit which are allocated
23 to said purposes and interest on the unamortized balance of
24 said construction allocation and, in addition, within the
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1 the irrigation allocation as is beyond the ability of the water
2 users and their organizations to repay.
3 ( c) The interest rate on the unamortized balance of the
4 commercial power and municipal, domestic, and industrial
5 water supply allocations shall be determined by the
Secre-6 tary of the Treasury, as of the beginning of the fiscal year
7 in which construction is initiated, on the basis of the
com-8 puted average interest rate payable by the Treasury upon its
9 outstanding marketable public obligations, which are neither
10 due nor callable for redemption for fifteen years from the
11 date of issue.
12 SEO. 3. (a) The Fryingpan-Arkansas project shall be
13 operated under the direction of the Secretary in accordance
14 with the operating principles adopted by the State of
Colo-15 rado on December 9, 1960, and reproduced in House
Docu-16 ment numbered 130, Eighty-seventh Congress.
17 (b) The Secretary may appoint the two representatives
18 of the United States to the Commission referred to in
para-19 graph 19 of said principles and may, upon unanimous
recom-20 mendation of the parties signatory to the operating principles,
21 adopt such modifications therein as are not inconsistent with
22 the provisions of this Act.
23 ( c) Any and all benefits and rights of western Colorado
24 water users in and to water stored in the Green Mountain
1 set forth and defined in Senate Document Numbered 80,
2 Seventy-fifth Congress, shall not be impaired, prejudiced,
3 abrogated, nullified, or diminished in any manner whatever
4 by reason of the authorization, construction, operation, and
5 maintenance of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project.
6 ( d) Except for such rights as are appurtenant to lands
7 which arc acquired for project purposes, no Yalid right to the
8 storage or use of water within the natural basin of the
9 Colorado River m the State of Colorado shall be acquired
10 by the Secretary of the Interior through eminent domain
11 proceedings for the purpose of storing or using outside of said
12 basin the water embraced within that right, and no water, 13 the right to the storage or use of which is so acquired by
14 anyone other than the Secretary, shall be transported
15 through or by means of any works of the
Fryingpan-16 Arkansas project from the Colorado River Basin to the
17 Arkansas River Basin.
18 SEC. 4. (a) The Secretary is authorized and directed
19 ( 1) to investigate, plan, construct, operate, and maintain
20 public recreational facilities on lands withdrawn or acquired 21 for the development of said project, ( 2) to conserve the
22 scenery, the natural, historic, and archeologic objects, and 23 the wildlife on said lands, ( 3) to provide for public use and
24 enjoyment of the same and of the water areas created by 25 this project by such means as are consistent with the
pur-s
1 costs, of the undertakings described m subsection {a} of
2 this section shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable 3 under the reclamation laws. The funds appropriated for car-4 rying out the authorization contained in section 1 of this Act 5 shall, without prejudice to the availability of other appro-6 priated moneys for the same purpose, also be aYailable for 7 carrying out the investigations and programs authorized in 8 this section.
9 SEC. 5. ( a) The use of water diverted from the Colo-10 rado River system to the Arkansas River Basin through 11 works constructed under authority of this Act shall be sub-12 ject to and controlled by the Colorado River compact, the 13 Upper Colorado River Basin compact, the Boulder Canyon 14 · Project Act, the Boulder Canyon Project Adjustment Act, 15 the Colorado River Storage Project Act, and the Mexican 16 Water Treaty ( Treaty Series 994) , and shall be included 17 within and shall in no way increase the total quantity of 18 water to the use of which the State of Colorado is entitled 19 and limited under said compacts, statutes, and treaty, and
20 every contract entered into under this Act for the storage, 21 use, and delivery of such water shall so recite.
22 (b) All works constructed under authority of this Act,
23 and all officers, employees, permittees, licensees, and
con-24 tractees of the United States and of the State of Colorado
1 water of the Colorado River system diverted or delivered 2 through the works constructed under authority of this Act 3 and any enlargements or additions thereto shall observe and 4 be subject to said compacts, statutes, and treaty, as
herein-5 before provided, in the diversion, delivery, and use of water 6 of the Colorado River system, and such condition and cove-7 nant shall attach as a matter of law whether or not set out 8 or refened to in the instrnment evidencing such permit,
li-9 cense, or contract and shall be deemed to be for the benefit of 10 and be available to the States of Arizona, California,
Colo-11 rado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the 12 users of water therein or thereunder by way of suit, defense, 13 or otherwise in any litigation respecting the waters of the 14 Colorado River system.
15 ( c) None of the waters of the Colorado River system 16 shall be exported from the natural basin of that system by 17 means of works constrncted under authority of this Act, or 18 extensions and enlargements of such works, to the Arkansas 19 River Basin for consumptive use outside of the State of 20 Colorado, and no such waters shall be made available for 21 consumptive use in any State not a party to the Colorado 22 River compact by exchange or substitution; nor shall the 23 obligations of the State of Colorado under the provisions of 24 the Arkansas River compact ( 63 Stat. 145) be altered by 25 any operations of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project.
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1 ( d) No right or claim of right to the use of the waters
2 of the Colorado River system shall be aided or prejudiced 3 by this Act, and the Congress does not, by its enactment, 4 construe or interpret any provision of the Colorado River 5 compact, the Upper Colorado River Basin compact, the
6 Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Boulder Canyon Project 7 Adjustment Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act, 8 or the l\Iexican Water Treaty or subject the United States
9 to, or approve or disapprove any interpretation of, said 10 compacts, statutes, or treaty, anything in this Act to the 11 contrary notwithstanding.
12 ( e)
In
the operation and maintenance of all facilitiei:i 13 under the jurisdiction and supervision of the Secretary of 14 the Interior authorized by this Act, the Secretary of the In-15 terior is directed to comply with the applicable provisions of16 the Colorado River compact, the Upper Colorado River 17 Basin compact, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, the Boul-18 der Canyon Project Adjustment Act, the Colorado River 19 Storage Project Act ( and any contract lawfully entered into
20 by the United States under any of said Acts) , the treaty 21 with the United Mexican States, and the operating prin-: 22 ciples, and to comply with the laws of the State of Colorado 23 relating to the control, appropriation, use, and distribution 24 of water therein. In the event of the failure of the Secretary
1 Basin may maintain an action in the Supreme Court of the 2 United States to enforce the provisions of this section and 3 consent is given to the joinder of the United States as a party 4 in such suit or suits, as a defendant or otherwise.
5 SEC. 6. The Secretary of the Interior is directed to con-6 tinue his studies of the quality of water of the Colorado 7 River system, to appraise its suitability for municipal, do-8 mestic, and industrial use and for irrigation in the various 9 areas in the United States in which it is used or proposed to 10 be used, to estimate the effect of additional developments 11 involving its storage and use ( whether heretofore authorized 12 or contemplated for authorization) on the remaining water 13 available for use in the United States, to study all possible 14 means of improving the quality of such water and of allevi-15 ating the
ill
effects thereof, and to report the results of his 16 studies and estimates to the Congress on January 3, 1963, 17 and every two years thereafter, the expen e of said studies 18 to be no part of the financial obligation of the Fryingpan-19 Arkansas project.2Q SEC. 7. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated 21 for construction of the Fryingpan-Arkansas project, the 22 sum of $170,000,000 ( June 1961 prices), plus or minus 23 such amounts, if any, as may be justified by reason of ordinary 24 fluctuations in construction costs as indicated by engineering 25 co~t indexes applicable to the types of construction involved
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1 herein. There are also authorized to be appropriated such 2 additional sums as may be required for operation and mainte-3 nance of the project and for future costs incurred under sec-4 tion sec-4 of this Act.
Passed the HousP of Representatives June 13, 1962.
Attest: RALPH R. ROBERTS,
