(d) The conditions and covenants referred to herein shall be deemed to run with the land and the right, interest, or privilege therein and water right, and shall attach as a matter of law, whether set out or referred to in the instrument evidencing any such patent, grant, contract, concession, lease, permit, license, right of way, or other privilege from the United States or under its authority, or not, and shall be deemed to be for the benefit of and be available to the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and the users of water therein or thereunder, by way of suit, defense, or otherwise, in any litigation respecting the waters of the Colorado River or its tributaries.

SEC. 14. This Act shall be deemed a supplement to the reclamation law, which said reclamation law shall govern the construction, operation, and management of the works herein authorized, except as otherwise herein provided.

SEC. 15. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to make investigation and public reports of the feasibility of projects for irrigation, generation of electric power, and other purposes in the States of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming for the purpose of making such information available to said States and to the Congress, and of formulating a comprehensive scheme of control and the improvement and utilization of the water of the Colorado River and its tributaries. The sum of $250,000 is hereby authorized to be appropriated from said Colorado River Dam fund, created by section 2 of this Act, for such purposes. SEC. 16. In furtherance of any comprehensive plan formulated hereafter for the control, improvement, and utilization of the resources of the Colorado River system and to the end that the project authorized by this Act may constitute and be administered as a unit in such control, improvement, and utilization, any commission or commissioner duly authorized under the laws of any ratifying State in that behalf shall have the right to act in an advisory capacity to and in cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior in the exercise of any authority under the provisions of sections 4, 5, and 14 of this Act, and shall have at all times access to records of all Federal agencies empowered to act under said sections, and shall be entitled to have copies of said records on request.

SEC. 17. Claims of the United States arising out of any contract authorized by this Act shall have priority over all others, secured or unsecured.

SEC. 18. Nothing herein shall be construed as interfering with such rights as the States now have either to the waters within their borders or to adopt such policies and enact such laws as they may deem necessary with respect to the appropriation, control, and use of waters within their borders, except as modified by the Colorado River compact or other interstate agreement.

SEC. 19. That the consent of Congress is hereby given to the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming to negotiate and enter into compacts or agreements, supplemental to and in conformity with the Colorado River compact and consistent with this Act for a comprehensive plan for the development of the Colorado River and providing for the storage, diversion, and use of the waters of said river. Any such compact

or agreement may provide for the construction of dams, headworks, and other diversion works or structures for flood control, reclamation, improvement of navigation, division of water, or other purposes and/or the construction of power houses or other structures for the purpose of the development of water power and the financing of the same; and for such purposes may authorize the creation of interstate commissions and/or the creation of corporations, authorities, or other instrumentalities.

(a) Such consent is given upon condition that a representative of the United States, to be appointed by the President, shall participate in the negotiations and shall make report to Congress of the proceedings and of any compact or agreement entered into.

(b) No such compact or agreement shall be binding or obligatory upon any of such States unless and until it has been approved by the legislature of each of such States and by the Congress of the United States.

SEC. 20. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as a denial or recognition of any rights, if any, in Mexico to the use of the waters of the Colorado River system.

SEC. 21. That the short title of this Act shall be "Boulder Canyon Project Act."

Approved, December 21, 1928.

[CHAPTER 643-3D SESSION]

[H. R. 9877]

AN ACT

Authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to promulgate and to put into effect charges for electrical energy generated at Boulder Dam, providing for the application of revenues from said project, authorizing the operation of the Boulder Power Plant by the United States directly or through agents, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to, and he shall, promulgate charges, or the basis of computation thereof, for electrical energy generated at Boulder Dam during the period beginning June 1, 1937, and ending May 31, 1987, computed to be sufficient, together with other net revenues from the project, to accomplish the following purposes:

(a) To meet the cost of operation and maintenance, and to provide for replacements, of the project during the period beginning June 1, 1937, and ending May 31, 1987;

(b) To repay to the Treasury, with interest, the advances to the Colorado River Dam Fund for the project made prior to June 1, 1937, within fifty years from that date (excluding advances allocated to flood control by section 2 (b) of the Project Act, which shall be repayable as provided in section 7 hereof), and such portion of such advances made on and after June 1, 1937, as (on the basis of repayment thereof within such fifty-year period or periods as the Secretary may determine) will be repayable prior to June 1, 1987; (c) To provide $600,000 for each of the years and for the purposes specified in section 2 (c) hereof; and

(d) To provide $500,000 for each of the years and for the purposes specified in section 2 (d) hereof.

Such charges may be made subject to revisions and adjustments at such times, to such extent, and in such manner, as by the terms of their promulgation the Secretary shall prescribe.

SEC. 2. All receipts from the project shall be paid into the Colorado River Dam Fund and shall be available for:

(a) Annual appropriation for the operation, maintenance, and replacements of the project, including emergency replacements necessary to insure continuous operations;

(b) Repayment to the Treasury, with interest (after making provision for the payments and transfers provided in subdivisions (c) and (d) hereof), of advances to the Colorado River Dam Fund for the construction of the project (excluding the amount allocated to flood control by section 2 (b) of the Project Act), and any readvances made to said fund under section 5 hereof; and

(c) Payment subject to the provisions of section 3 hereof, in commutation of the payments now provided for the States of Arizona

and Nevada in section 4 (b) of the Project Act, to each of said States of the sum of $300,000 for each year of operation, beginning with the year of operation ending May 31, 1938, and continuing annually thereafter until and including the year of operation ending May 31, 1987, and such payments for any year of operation which shall have expired at the time when this subdivision (c) shall become effective shall be due immediately, and be paid, without interest, as expeditiously as administration of this Act will permit, and each such payment for subsequent years of operation shall be made on or before July 31, following the close of the year of operation for which it is made. All such payments shall be made from revenues hereafter received in the Colorado River Dam Fund.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subsection, in the event that there are levied and collected by or under authority of Arizona or Nevada or by any lawful taxing political subdivision thereof, taxes upon

(i) the project as herein defined;

(ii) the electrical energy generated at Boulder Dam by means of facilities, machinery, or equipment both owned and operated by the United States, or owned by the United States and operated under contract with the United States;

(iii) the privilege of generating or transforming such electrical energy or of use of such facilities, machinery, or equipment or of falling water for such generation or transforming; or

(iv) the transmission or control of such electrical energy so generated or transformed (as distinguished from the transmission lines and other physical properties used for such transmission or control) or the use of such transmission lines or other physical properties for such transmission or control, payments made hereunder to the State by or under the authority of which such taxes are collected shall be reduced by an amount equivalent to such taxes. Nothing herein shall in anywise impair the right of either the State of Arizona or the State of Nevada, or any lawful taxing political subdivision of either of them, to collect nondiscriminatory taxes upon that portion of the transmission lines and all other physical properties, situated within such State and such political subdivision, respectively, and belonging to any of the lessees and/or allottees under the Project Act and/or under this Act, and nothing herein shall exempt or be construed so as to exempt any such property from nondiscriminatory taxation, all in the manner provided by the constitution and laws of such State. Sums, if any, received by each State under the provisions of the Project Act shall be deducted from the first payment or payments to said State authorized by this Act. Payments under this section 2 (c) shall be deemed contractual obligations of the United States, subject to the provisions of section 3 of this Act.

(d) Transfer, subject to the provisions of section 3 hereof, from the Colorado River Dam Fund to a special fund in the Treasury, hereby established and designated the "Colorado River Development Fund", of the sum of $500,000 for the year of operation ending May 31, 1938, and the like sum of $500,000 for each year of operation thereafter, until and including the year of operation ending May 31, 1987. The transfer of the said sum of $500,000 for each year of

operation shall be made on or before July 31 next following the close of the year of operation for which it is made: Provided, That any such transfer for any year of operation which shall have ended at the time this section 2 (d) shall become effective, shall be made, without interest, from revenues received in the Colorado River Dam Fund, as expeditiously as administration of this Act will permit, and without readvances from the general funds of the Treasury. Receipts of the Colorado River Development Fund for the years of operation ending in 1938, 1939, and 1940 (or in the event of reduced receipts during any of said years, due to adjustments under section 3 hereof, then the first receipts of said fund up to $1,500,000), are authorized to be appropriated only for the continuation and extension, under the direction of the Secretary, of studies and investigations by the Bureau of Reclamation for the formulation of a comprehensive plan for the utilization of waters of the Colorado River system for irrigation, electrical power, and other purposes, in the States of the upper division and the States of the lower division, including studies of quantity and quality of water and all other relevant factors. The next such receipts up to and including the receipts for the year of operation ending in 1955 are authorized to be appropriated only for the investigation and construction of projects for such utilization in and equitably distributed among the four States of the upper division. Such receipts for the years of operation ending in 1956 to 1987, inclusive, are authorized to be appropriated for the investigation and construction of projects for such utilization in and equitably distributed among the States of the upper division and the States of the lower division. The terms "Colorado River system", "States of the upper division", and "States of the lower division" as so used shall have the respective meanings defined in the Colorado River compact mentioned in the Project Act. Such projects shall be only such as are found by the Secretary to be physically feasible, economically justified, and consistent with such formulation of a comprehensive plan. Nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to prevent the authorization and construction of any such projects prior to the completion of said plan of comprehensive development; nor shall this Act be construed as affecting the right of any State to proceed independently of this Act or its provisions with the investigation or construction of any project or projects. Transfers under this section 2 (d) shall be deemed contractual obligations of the United States, subject to the provisions of section 3 of this Act.

SEC. 3. If, by reason of any act of God, or of the public enemy, or any major catastrophe, or any other unforeseen and unavoidable cause, the revenues, for any year of operation, after making provision for costs of operation, maintenance, and the amount to be set aside for said year for replacements, should be insufficient to make the payments to the States of Arizona and Nevada and the transfers to the Colorado River Development Fund herein provided for, such payments and transfers shall be proportionately reduced, as the Secretary may find to be necessary by reason thereof.

SEC. 4. (a) Upon the taking effect of this Act, pursuant to section 10 hereof, the charges, or the basis of computation thereof, promulgated hereunder, shall be applicable as from June 1, 1937, and adjustments of accounts by reason thereof, including charges by and