576
PUBLIC LAW 5 4 7 - J U L Y 28, 1954
Fallbrook P u b l i c Utility District r e payment contract. 53 Stat. 1193. 43 USC 485h.
California mits.
per-
Claim a g a i n s t U. S.
Equal priority in use of waters.
Feasibility. Water rights.
Navy Department charges.
[68
ST AT.
provisions of this Act, is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain such dam and other facilities as may be required to make available for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses the yield of the reservoir created by De Luz Dam to be located immediately below the confluence of De Luz Creek with Santa Margarita River on Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, San Diego County, California, for the Fallbrook Public Utility District and such other users as herein provided. The authority of the Secretary to construct said facilities is contingent upon a determination by him that— (a) the Fallbrook Public Utility District shall have entered into a contract under subsection (d), section 9, of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 undertaking to repay to the United States of America appropriate portions, as determined by the Secretary, of the actual costs of constructing, operating, and maintaining such dam and other facilities, together with interest as hereinafter provided; and under no circumstances shall the Department of the Navy be subject to any charges or costs except on the basis of its proportional use, if any, of such dam and other facilities, as determined pursuant to section 2(b) of this Act; (b) the officer or agency of the State of California authorized by law to grant permits for the appropriation of water shall have granted such permits to the United States of America and shall have granted permits to the Fallbrook Public Utility District for rights to the use of water for storage and diversion as provided in this Act; including, as to the Fallbrook Public Utility District, approval of all requisite changes in points of diversion and storage, and purposes and places of use; (c) the Fallbrook Public Utility District shall have agreed that it will not assert against the United States of America any prior appropriative right it may have to water in excess of that quantity deliverable to it under the provisions of this Act, and will share in the use of the waters impounded by the De Luz Dam on the basis of equal priority and in accordance with the ratio prescribed in section 3(a) of this Act; this agreement and waiver and the changes in points of diversion and storage, required by the preceding paragraph, shall become effective and binding only when the dam and other facilities herein provided for shall have been completed and put into operation: Provided, however, That the enactment of this legislation does not constitute a recognition of, or an admission that, the Fallbrook Public Utility District has any rights to the use of water in the Santa Margarita River, which rights, if any, exist only by virtue of the laws of the State of California; and (d) the De Luz Dam and other facilities herein authorized have economic and engineering feasibility. SEC. 2. (a) I n the interest of comity between the United States of America and the State of California and consistent with the historic policy of the United States of America of Federal noninterference with State water law, the Secretary of the Navy shall promptly comply with the procedures for the acquisition of appropriative water rights required under the laws of the State of California as soon as he is satisfied, with the advice of the Attorney General of the United States, that such action will not adversely affect the rights of the United States of America under the laws of the State of California. (b) The Department of the Navy will not be subject to any charges or costs in connection with the De Luz Dam or its facilities, except upon completion and then shall be charged in reasonable proportion to its use of the facilities under regulations agreed upon by the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Interior.
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