108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4389
AN ACT
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facili-
ties to provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic,
military, and other uses from the Santa Margarita River,
California, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this section, the following defini-
tions apply:
(1) DISTRICT.—The term ‘‘District’’ means the
Fallbrook Public Utility District, San Diego County,
California.
(2) PROJECT.—The term ‘‘Project’’ means the
impoundment, recharge, treatment, and other facili-
ties the construction, operation, and maintenance of
which is authorized under subsection (b).
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR CONSTRUCTION OF LOWER
SANTA 
MARGARITA 
CONJUNCTIVE 
USE
PROJECT.
(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary, acting pursu-
ant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17,
1902; 32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or sup-
plementary thereto, as far as those laws are not incon-
sistent with the provisions of this Act, is authorized to
construct, operate, and maintain to make the yield of the
Lower Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project to be lo-
cated below the confluence of De Luz Creek with the
Santa Margarita River on Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, the
Fallbrook Annex of the Naval Weapons Station, and sur-
rounding lands within the service area of the District
available for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and
other uses for the District and such other users as herein
provided.
(b) CONDITIONS.—The Secretary of the Interior may
construct the Project only after the Secretary of the Inte-
rior determines that the following conditions have oc-
curred:
(1) The District has entered into a contract
under section 9(d) of the Reclamation Project Act of
1939 to repay to the United States appropriate por-
tions, as determined by the Secretary, of the actual
costs of constructing, operating, and maintaining the
Project, together with interest as hereinafter pro-
vided.
(2) The officer or agency of the State of Cali-
fornia authorized by law to grant permits for the ap-
propriation of water has granted such permits to the
Bureau of Reclamation for the benefit of the De-
partment of the Navy and the District as permitees
for rights to the use of water for storage and diver-
sion as provided in this Act, including approval of all
requisite changes in points of diversion and storage,
and purposes and places of use.
(3) The District has agreed that it will not as-
sert against the United States any prior appropria-
tive right the District may have to water in excess
of the quantity deliverable to it under this Act, and
will share in the use of the waters impounded by the
Project on the basis of equal priority and in accord-
ance with the ratio prescribed in section 4(b). This
agreement and waiver and the changes in points of
diversion and storage under paragraph (2), shall be-
come effective and binding only when the Project
has been completed and put into operation.
(4) The Secretary of the Interior has deter-
mined that the Project has economic, environmental,
and engineering feasibility.
SEC. 3. COSTS.
The Department of the Navy shall not be responsible
for any costs in connection with the Project, except upon
completion and then shall be charged in reasonable pro-
portion to its use of the Project under regulations agreed
upon by the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the
Interior.
SEC. 4. OPERATION; YIELD ALLOTMENT; DELIVERY.
(a) OPERATION.—The operation of the Project may
be by the Secretary of the Interior or otherwise as agreed
upon by the Secretaries of the Interior and the Navy and
the District, under regulations satisfactory to the Sec-
retary of the Navy with respect to the Navy’s share of
the impounded water and national security.
(b) YIELD ALLOTMENT.—Except as otherwise agreed
between the parties, the Department of the Navy and the
District shall participate in the water impounded by the
Project on the basis of equal priority and in accordance
with the following ratio:
(1) 60 percent of the Project’s yield is allotted
to the Secretary of the Navy.
(2) 40 percent of the Project’s yield is allotted
to the District.
(c) CONTRACTS FOR DELIVERY OF WATER.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary of the Navy
certifies that the Department of the Navy does not
have immediate need for any portion of the 60 per-
cent yield allotted under subsection (b), the official
agreed upon to administer the Project may enter
into temporary contracts for the delivery of the ex-
cess water.
(2) FIRST
RIGHT
FOR
EXCESS
WATER.—The
first right of the Secretary of the Navy to demand
that water without charge and without obligation on
the part of the United States after 30 days notice
shall be included as a condition of contracts entered
into under this subsection. The first right to water
available under paragraph (1) shall be given the Dis-
trict, if otherwise consistent with the laws of the
State of California.
(3) DISPOSITION OF FUNDS.—Moneys paid to
the United States under a contract under this sub-
section shall be covered into the general Treasury or
to the Secretary of the Navy, as services in lieu of
payment for operation and maintenance of the
Project, and shall not be applied against the indebt-
edness of the District to the United States.
(4) MODIFICATION
OF
RIGHTS
AND
OBLIGA-
TIONS RELATED TO WATER YIELD.—The rights and
obligations of the United States and the District re-
garding the ratio or amounts of Project yield deliv-
ered may be modified by an agreement between the
parties.
SEC. 5. REPAYMENT OBLIGATION OF THE DISTRICT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The general repayment obligation
of the District shall be determined by the Secretary of the
Interior consistent with the Water Supply Act of 1958;
provided, however, that for the purposes of calculating in-
terest and determining the time when the District’s repay-
ment obligation to the United States commences, the
pumping and treatment of groundwater from the Project
shall be deemed equivalent to the first use of water from
a water storage project.
(b) MODIFICATION OF RIGHTS AND OBLIGATION BY
AGREEMENT.—The rights and obligations of the United
States and the District regarding the repayment obliga-
tion of the District may be modified by an agreement be-
tween the parties.
SEC. 6. TRANSFER OF CARE, OPERATION, AND MAINTE-
NANCE.
The Secretary may transfer to the District, or a mu-
tually agreed upon third party, the care, operation, and
maintenance of the Project under conditions satisfactory
to that Secretary and the District, and with respect to
the portion of the Project that is located within the bound-
aries of Camp Pendleton, satisfactory also to the Secretary
of the Navy. If such a transfer takes place, the District
shall be entitled to an equitable credit for the costs associ-
ated with the Secretary’s proportionate share of the oper-
ation and maintenance of the Project. The amount of such
costs shall be applied against the indebtedness of the Dis-
trict to the United States.
SEC. 7. SCOPE OF ACT.
For the purpose of this Act, the basis, measure, and
limit of all rights of the United States pertaining to the
use of water shall be the laws of the State of California.
That nothing in this Act shall be construed—
which the United States is entitled according to the
laws of the State of California either as a result of
its acquisition of the lands comprising Camp Joseph
H. Pendleton and adjoining naval installations, and
the rights to the use of water as a part of those ac-
quisitions, or through actual use or prescription, or
both, since the date of that acquisition, if any; and
(2) shall not be administered or operated in any
way which will impair or deplete the quantities of
water the use of which the United States would be
entitled under the laws of the State of California
had the Project not been built.
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated, out of any
money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise
appropriated, the following:
(1) $60,000,000 (the current estimated con-
struction cost of the Project, plus or minus such
amounts as may be indicated by the engineering cost
indices for this type of construction); and
(2) such sums as may be required to operate
and maintain the said project.
SEC. 10. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment
of this Act and periodically thereafter, the Secretary of
the Interior and the Secretary of the Navy shall each re-
port to the Congress regarding if the conditions specified
in section 2(b) have been met and if so, the details of how
they were met.
Passed the House of Representatives October 4,
2004.
Attest:
Clerk.