I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2842 

To authorize all Bureau of Reclamation conduit facilities for hydropower 

development under Federal Reclamation law, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 

Mr. TIPTON (for himself and Mr. GOSAR) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To authorize all Bureau of Reclamation conduit facilities 

for hydropower development under Federal Reclamation 

law, 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 Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs 

6 Act of 2011’’. 

7 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION. 

8 Section 9(c) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 

9 (43 U.S.C. 485h(c)) is amended— 


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1 (1) by striking ‘‘The Secretary is authorized to 

2 enter into contracts to furnish water’’ and inserting 

3 ‘‘(1) The Secretary is authorized to enter into con4 tracts to furnish water’’; 

5 (2) by striking ‘‘(1) shall’’ and inserting ‘‘(A) 

6 shall’’; 

7 (3) by striking ‘‘(2) shall’’ and inserting ‘‘(B) 

8 shall’’; 

9 (4) by striking ‘‘respecting the terms of sales of 

10 electric power and leases of power privileges shall be 

11 in addition and alternative to any authority in exist12 ing laws relating to particular projects’’ and insert13 ing ‘‘respecting the sales of electric power and leases 

14 of power privileges shall be an authorization in addi15 tion to and alternative to any authority in existing 

16 laws related to particular projects, including small 

17 conduit hydropower development’’; and 

18 (5) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(2) When carrying out this subsection, the Secretary 

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

21 district or water users association operating the applicable 

22 transferred work, or to the irrigation district or water 

23 users association receiving water from the applicable re24 served work. The Secretary shall determine a reasonable 


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1 time frame for the irrigation district or water users asso2 ciation to accept or reject a lease of power privilege offer. 

3 ‘‘(3) The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 

4 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall not apply to small conduit 

5 hydropower development, excluding siting of associated 

6 transmission on Federal lands, under this subsection. 

7 ‘‘(4) The Power Resources Office of the Bureau of 

8 Reclamation shall be the lead office of small conduit hy9 dropower activities conducted under this subsection. 

10 ‘‘(5) Nothing in this subsection shall obligate the 

11 Western Area Power Administration, the Bonneville 

12 Power Administration, or the Southwestern Power Admin13 istration to purchase or market any of the power produced 

14 by the facilities covered under this subsection and none 

15 of the costs associated with production or delivery of such 

16 power shall be assigned to project purposes for inclusion 

17 in project rates. 

18 ‘‘(6) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or impede 

19 the delivery and management of water by Bureau of Rec20 lamation facilities, as water used for conduit hydropower 

21 generation shall be deemed incidental to use of water for 

22 the original project purposes. Lease of power privilege 

23 shall be made only when, in the judgment of the Secretary, 

24 the exercise of the lease will not be incompatible with the 

25 purposes of the project or division involved, nor shall it 


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1 create any unmitigated financial or physical impacts to the 

2 project or division involved, and shall be on such terms 

3 and conditions as in the judgment of the Secretary in con4 sultation with the appropriate irrigation district, will ade5 quately protect the planning, design, construction, oper6 ation, maintenance, and other interests of the United 

7 States and the project or division involved. 

8 ‘‘(7) Nothing in this subsection shall alter or affect 

9 any existing agreements for the development of conduit 

10 hydropower projects or disposition of revenues. 

11 ‘‘(8) In this subsection: 

12 ‘‘(A) CONDUIT.—The term ‘conduit’ means any 

13 Bureau of Reclamation tunnel, canal, pipeline, aque14 duct, flume, ditch, or similar manmade water con15 veyance that is operated for the distribution of water 

16 for agricultural, municipal, or industrial consump17 tion and not primarily for the generation of elec18 tricity. 

19 ‘‘(B) IRRIGATION DISTRICT.—The term ‘irriga20 tion district’ means any irrigation, water conserva21 tion, multicounty water conservation district, or any 

22 separate public entity composed of two or more such 

23 districts and jointly exercising powers of its member 

24 districts. 


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1 ‘‘(C) RESERVED WORK.—The term ‘reserved 

2 work’ means any conduit that is included in project 

3 works the care, operation, and maintenance of which 

4 has been reserved by the Secretary, through the 

5 Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. 

6 ‘‘(D) TRANSFERRED WORK.—The term ‘trans7 ferred work’ means any conduit that is included in 

8 project works the care, operation, and maintenance 

9 of which has been transferred to a legally organized 

10 water users association or irrigation district. 

11 ‘‘(E) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

12 the Secretary of the Interior. 

13 ‘‘(F) SMALL CONDUIT HYDROPOWER.—The 

14 term ‘small conduit hydropower’ means a facility ca15 pable of producing 1.5 megawatts or less of electric 

16 capacity.’’. 

Æ 


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