the construction and legal aspects, it is now recognized that the proper solution of economic questions prior to the authorization of a project for construction is indispensable, if the projects are to be successfully settled and developed. 6. Withdrawal of Lands When the location of a project has been determined, the next step is to effect the withdrawal of such lands from entry under the public land laws, which is accomplished through the General Land Office. Lands withdrawn under what is called the "first form" are withdrawn absolutely as needed for irrigation works and subsidiary structures. Lands withdrawn under the "second form" are so reserved because they are "believed to be susceptible of irrigation from said works." They are not withdrawn from entry under the homestead laws, as modified by the Reclamation Act, but are withdrawn otherwise. Either class of withdrawal affects only tracts under the control of the General Land Office, and not claims already initiated. If any of these claims or rights are abandoned or relinquished, the withdrawal automatically takes effect. So, also, any lands so withdrawn are restored to public entry, if it is found that they be not required. for construction, operation, or maintenance. 7. Preliminary Survey The preliminary survey, following the withdrawal of lands, comprises topographic and hydrographic features of the area, climatic conditions (temperature, rainfall, frosts, character of the soil, etc.), settlement, transportation, and economic factors, and inquiries into vested rights in, and claims to, lands and the use of waters. Data as to available water supply are obtained from the Geological Survey. 8. Water Users' Associations Water Users' Associations heretofore have incorporated, each member holding stock in proportion to his acreage of irrigable land. Through them the government secures itself for the repayment of construction charges. The member usually mutually agrees: (1) To turn over to the management of the association all water which he had heretofore appropriated, to be administered in connection with the additional water supply furnished from the government irrigation system; (2) To make his former water rights, as well as the government water rights, appurtenant to the land irrigated; (3) To pay the construction charges which might be imposed by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to the Reclamation Act; (4) That such charges should be a lien on the land, which the association might enforce; (5) To dispose of the lands he owned in excess of 160 acres, that being the maximum area under single ownership to which water might be supplied under the Reclamation Act. In some cases 80 acres was set as the maximum. 9. Irrigation District An irrigation district is a public corporation, and is the result of the legislative application of the public municipal idea to the needs of irrigation. Among the reasons why an irrigation district organization is perhaps preferable to a water users' association are the following: (1) The organization, financing, and operation of irrigation districts are fully under popular control. (2) All lands benefited are bound to pay their proper share of the costs of the irrigation system, and a small minority of landowners cannot impede the develop ment. (3) All lands benefited become obligated at once, insuring a greater productiveness in crops and an earlier return of the cost. (4) The irrigation district encourages all land to be put into cultivation to meet assessments, and so retards speculation. (5) It simplifies the machinery for the collection of moneys due the United States. (6) It affords the best security to guarantee the return of the cost of an irrigation project to the United States, and all in all it best meets the demands of the national irrigation law, that the estimated cost of federal irrigation works shall be repaid. When the project has survived the foregoing preliminaries, and the Secretary has secured information in detail concerning the water supply, the engineering features, the cost of construction, land prices, and the probable cost of development, and has made a finding in writing that it is feasible, that it is adaptable for actual settlement and farm homes, and that it will probably return the cost thereof to the United States, congressional authorization is in order, and then the Secretary of the Interior may direct the preparation of plans and proceed with construction.20 11. The Selection of Reservoir Sites There are many considerations to be weighed in the selection of reservoir sites. Detailed surveys usually are made of several proposed sites. 12. Detailed Topographic and Land Map As a preliminary to laying out the distributing system, a topographic map of the grounds about the head works of the main canal and a narrow belt along the line of the proposed canal and to the irrigable lands must be made, as well as maps showing boundaries of public and private tracts, townships, quarter section and meander lines. 13. Preparation of Plans and Specifications Plans are made on the ground so far as possible. Specifications are prepared at the Headquarters Office in Washington. 14. Construction by Contract Construction by contract is the rule by which the several sections of the work can be built more economically than by the Reclamation Service through its own personnel, where the character and amount of the work to be done can be defi 20 Section 4, subsection B, Deficiency Appropriation Act, for supplemental appropriations, year ending June 30, 1925. nitely anticipated and described in the contract. In publishing for bids on the work, the widest publicity is attempted. The government goes to great lengths in revealing the conditions surrounding the project, that bidders may be properly forewarned of difficulties. Bids must be sealed, and they are opened publicly by a board of officers in the presence of such interested persons as care to be present. Contracts provide that, in case of failure to execute the work properly within the required time, the government may declare the contract forfeited, take over the unfinished work, the plant and equipment, and finish the job at the contractor's cost. The Secretary of the Interior sometimes finds it necessary to make contracts without competitive bidding. Tasks are regularly inspected by Reclamation Service Engineers. 15. Construction by Bureau of Reclamation Personnel Where construction involves many uncertainties and is liable to interruption. by floods, as, for example, in building foundations of dams, if the character of the rock that may be found in the river bed cannot be ascertained readily in advance, an engineer of the Service is put in charge of the work; another engineer acts independently as inspector. 16. Subsidiary Activities to Serve Construction Personnel Since reclamation enterprises usually are carried on in remote localities, it is necessary to operate various services for the personnel, such as messes, hospitals, stores, and recreational facilities. 17. Opening Projects Upon completion of a self-sufficient unit of, and the whole of, the project, the Reclamation Service tests the works, and, when satisfactory, begins to deliver water to irrigable lands for which "rental" charges are made to owners of land within the project, which rentals have been authorized by Congress.22 This tentative use is expanded until the unit or project is deemed ready for formal opening, which is announced by the Secretary of the Interior, who, as to each irrigable acre of land in each new project, or a new division of a project, must issue two public notices relating to construction charges. "The first public notice shall be issued when the land is ready for settlement and will announce the construction charge per irrigable acre. The second public notice shall be issued when in the opinion of the Secretary the agricultural development of the project shall have advanced sufficiently to warrant the commencement of payment of installments of such construction charge. The second public notice shall fix the date when payments will begin on the construction charge announced by the first public notice, which date shall be not more than five years from the date of the first public notice." 23 21 See Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, Administration of the Reclamation Act. Hearing, Feb. 1-11, 1910. Washington Government Printing Office, 1910. 22 Act Aug. 13, 1914, § 11 (38 Stat. 686 [Comp. St. § 4714a]). 23 Act June 17, 1902, § 4 (32 Stat. 388 [Comp. St. § 47031), as modified by Act June 25, 1910, § 5 (36 Stat. 835), and section 4, subsec. E, Deficiency Appropriation Act for supplemental appropriations, year ending June 30, 1925. 18. Fiscal Agents While the General Land Office administers the disposal of public lands, the Bureau of Reclamation collects charges imposed upon such lands within reclamation projects, for the construction of irrigation works and the maintenance and operation. Fiscal agents are appointed.24 19. Payment of Construction Charges Under the Extension Act of 1914 twenty years was allowed for payment, the initial payment being 5 per cent. (as a test of the financial ability of the prospective entrymen), followed by a five-year period of credit during which no payment need be made, in order to enable the settler to utilize his capital in cultivations; during the next five years an annual installment of 5 per cent., and the remaining ten years 7 per cent. annually.25 But these terms have been modified by 1924 legislation,26 providing "That hereafter all project construction charges shall be made payable in annual installments based on the productive power of the land as provided in this subsection. The installment of the construction charge per irrigable acre payable each year shall be 5 per centum of the average gross annual acre income for the ten calendar years first preceding, or for all years of record if fewer than ten years are available, of the area in cultivation in the division or subdivision thereof of the project in which the land is located, as found by the Secretary annually. The decision of the Secretary as to the amount of any such installment shall be conclusive. These annual payments shall continue until the total construction charge against each unit is paid. The Secretary is authorized upon request to amend any existing contract for a project water right so that it will provide for payment of the construction charge thereunder in accordance with the provisions of this subsection or for the deferment of such construction charges for a period. of three years from the approval of this section, or both." 20. Operation and Maintenance Charges Operation and maintenance charges are authorized and average about $1 per acre or, when computed on the basis of water used, about 50 to 75 cents per acre foot. 21. Operation The Bureau of Reclamation has accomplished a certain systematization of management in the projects.28 24 Act Aug. 9, 1912, § 4 (37 Stat. 265 [Comp. St. § 4731]). Instructions for Accounting and Fiscal Affairs, 1909. Washington Government Printing Office, 2 Vol. Manner of Field Accounting, Wash. 1907. 25 Reclamation Extension Act Aug. 13, 1914 (38 Stat. 686). 26 Section 4, subsec. F, Deficiency Appropriation Act, for supplemental appropriations, year ending June 30, 1925. 27 Act Aug. 13, 1914, § 5 (38 Stat. 687 [Comp. St. § 4713e]); Act Dec. 5, 1924, § 4 (Comp. St. 1925, § 4750g14). 28 Manual of the United States Reclamation Service, 1907. Washington Government Printing Office, pp. 324-366; Operation and Maintenance Use Board. 22. Transfer to Water Users' Association By the Reclamation Extension Act25 the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to transfer the operation of the works and the reservoirs to a legally organized water users' association or irrigation district. The application must be based upon a certified copy of a resolution of the governing board of the organization presenting the same, requesting the transfer, and accompanied by a statement showing that the state and charter powers of the organization authorize the acceptance of the duties contemplated by such proposed transfers, citing statutory provisions, regulations and charter powers in relation thereto. "In any case the application may be approved and contract authorized conditional upon further satisfactory showing being made that the taking over of the operation and maintenance by the organization has been submitted to all the water users affected and approved by a majority vote of all voting, provided at least three-fifths of all water users affected vote; otherwise, by a majority of all water users affected. "Except where the organization is an irrigation district, a good and sufficient bond shall be given to the United States for the faithful performance of all duties required by law under the contract. Such bond shall be subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior.29 The act of 1924 provides, in this connection: "That whenever two-thirds of the irrigable area of any project, or division of a project, shall be covered by water-right contracts between the water users and the United States, said project shall be required, as a condition precedent to receiving the benefits of this section to take over, through a legally organized water users' association or irrigation district, the care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and thereafter the United States, in its relation to said project, shall deal with a water users' association or irrigation district, and when the water users assume control of a project, the operation and maintenance charges for the year then current shall be covered into the construction account to be repaid as part of the construction repayments." "30 23. Organization and Duties (A) The Secretary of the Interior is an integral part of the Bureau of Reclamation, since certain functions are specifically vested in him by the Reclamation Act, as amended, as will appear in the following: (1) In the withdrawal of lands it is his duty: (la) To withdraw from entry public lands required for irrigation works, and to restore to public entry any of the lands so withdrawn when such lands are no longer required for such works.3 31 (1b) To withdraw from entry, except under the homestead laws, any public lands believed to be susceptible of irrigation from said works.31 29 Service Monograph No. 2, supra, p. 68. 30 Section 4, subsection G, Deficiency Appropriation Act, for supplemental appropriations, year ending June 30, 1925. 31 Act June 17, 1902, § 3 (32 Stat. 388 [Comp. St. § 4702]). |