I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1963 

To amend the Water Conservation and Utilization Act to authorize the development of non-Federal hydropower and issuance of leases of power privileges at projects constructed pursuant to the authority of the Water 

Conservation and Utilization Act, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 14, 2013 

Mr. DAINES introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Water Conservation and Utilization Act to 

authorize the development of non-Federal hydropower 

and issuance of leases of power privileges at projects 

constructed pursuant to the authority of the Water Conservation and Utilization Act, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bureau of Reclamation 

5 Conduit Hydropower Development Equity and Jobs Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT. 

2 Section 9 of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act authorizing 

3 construction of water conservation and utilization projects 

4 in the Great Plains and arid semiarid areas of the United 

5 States’’, approved August 11, 1939 (16 U.S.C. 590z–7; 

6 commonly known as the ‘‘Water Conservation and Utiliza7 tion Act’’), is amended— 

8 (1) by striking ‘‘In connection with’’ and insert9 ing ‘‘(a) In connection with’’; 

10 (2) by striking ‘‘All right, title, and interest in 

11 the facilities provided for such municipal or miscella12 neous water supplies or surplus power and the reve13 nues derived therefrom shall be and remain in the 

14 United States.’’; and 

15 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

16 ‘‘(b) The Secretary is authorized to enter into leases 

17 of power privileges for electric power generation in connec18 tion with any project constructed under this Act, and shall 

19 have authority in addition to and alternative to any au20 thority in existing laws related to particular projects, in21 cluding small conduit hydropower development, consistent 

22 with the terms of this Act, the Reclamation Project Act 

23 of 1939 (43 U.S.C. 485h), and other Federal reclamation 

24 laws. 

25 ‘‘(c) When carrying out this section, the Secretary 

26 shall first offer the lease of power privilege to an irrigation 


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1 district or water users association operating the applicable 

2 transferred conduit, or to the irrigation district or water 

3 users association receiving water from the applicable re4 served conduit. The Secretary shall determine a reason5 able timeframe for the irrigation district or water users 

6 association to accept or reject a lease of power privilege 

7 offer. If the irrigation district or water users association 

8 elects not to accept a lease of power privilege offer under 

9 paragraph (1), the Secretary shall offer the lease of power 

10 privilege to other parties in accordance with this section. 

11 ‘‘(d) The Bureau of Reclamation shall apply its cat12 egorical exclusion process under the National Environ13 mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) to 

14 small conduit hydropower development under this section, 

15 excluding siting of associated transmission facilities on 

16 Federal lands. 

17 ‘‘(e) Nothing in this section shall obligate the West18 ern Area Power Administration or the Bonneville Power 

19 Administration to purchase or market any of the power 

20 produced by the facilities covered under this section and 

21 none of the costs associated with production or delivery 

22 of such power shall be assigned to project purposes for 

23 inclusion in project rates. 

24 ‘‘(f) Nothing in this section shall alter or impede the 

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1 tion facilities, as water used for conduit hydropower gen2 eration shall be deemed incidental to use of water for the 

3 original project purposes. Lease of power privilege shall 

4 be made only when, in the judgment of the Secretary, the 

5 exercise of the lease will not be incompatible with the pur6 poses of the project or division involved and shall not cre7 ate any unmitigated financial or physical impacts to the 

8 project or division involved. The Secretary shall notify and 

9 consult with the irrigation district or legally organized 

10 water users association operating the transferred conduit 

11 in advance of offering the lease of power privilege and 

12 shall prescribe such terms and conditions necessary to 

13 adequately protect the planning, design, construction, op14 eration, maintenance, and other interests of the United 

15 States and the project or division involved. 

16 ‘‘(g) Nothing in this section shall alter or affect any 

17 agreements in effect on the date of the enactment of the 

18 Bureau of Reclamation Conduit Hydropower Development 

19 Equity and Jobs Act for the development of conduit hy20 dropower projects or disposition of revenues. 

21 ‘‘(h) In this section: 

22 ‘‘(1) CONDUIT.—The term ‘conduit’ means any 

23 Bureau of Reclamation tunnel, canal, pipeline, aque24 duct, flume, ditch, or similar manmade water con25 veyance that is operated for the distribution of water 


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1 for agricultural, municipal, or industrial consump2 tion and not primarily for the generation of elec3 tricity. 

4 ‘‘(2) IRRIGATION DISTRICT.—The term ‘irriga5 tion district’ means any irrigation, water conserva6 tion or conservancy, multi-county water conservation 

7 or conservancy district, or any separate public entity 

8 composed of two or more such districts and jointly 

9 exercising powers of its member districts. 

10 ‘‘(3) RESERVED CONDUIT.—The term ‘reserved 

11 conduit’ means any conduit that is included in 

12 project works the care, operation, and maintenance 

13 of which has been reserved by the Secretary, 

14 through the Commissioner of the Bureau of Rec15 lamation. 

16 ‘‘(4) TRANSFERRED CONDUIT.—The term 

17 ‘transferred conduit’ means any conduit that is in18 cluded in project works the care, operation, and 

19 maintenance of which has been transferred to a le20 gally organized water users association or irrigation 

21 district. 

22 ‘‘(5) SMALL CONDUIT HYDROPOWER.—The 

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1 pable of producing 5 megawatts or less of electric 

2 capacity.’’. 

Æ 


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