An Act to authorize construction by the Secretary of the Interior of the Crooked River Federal reclamation project, Oregon
PL 84-992 (S.3101), enacted 08/06/1956

1058 
PUBLIC LAW 992-AUG. 6, 1956 
[70 STAT. 
Public Law 992 
CHAPTER 980 
August 6, 1956 
[5,3101] 
Crooked 
R i v e r 
reclamation p r o j -
ect, Oreg. 
Authorization. 
Conditions. 
43 u s e 371 note. 
43 u s e 390a. 
AN ACT 
To authorize construction by the Secretary of the Interior of the Groolsed River 
Federal reclamation project, Oregon. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That, for the pur-
pose of furnishing water for the irrigation of arid and semiarid lands 
(including approximately twenty thousand acres of land in Crook 
County, Oregon) and for other beneficial purposes, the Secretary 
of the Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the 
Crooked River Federal reclamation project. The principal new works 
of the said project shall include a dam and storage reservoir at or 
near the Prineville site, a diversion dam and canal below said res-
ervoir, and related pumping plants, canals, conduits, drains, and 
other facilities. 
The operation of said works shall ba integrated 
with the operation of the existing Ochoco Dam and Reservoir and 
of the Government-owned generator in the Cove powerplant of the 
Pacific Power and Light Company, which works shall, for the pur-
pose of this Act, be considered as works of the Crooked River project. 
SEC. 2. In constructing, operating, and maintaining the Crooked 
River project, the Secretary shall be governed by the Federal reclama-
tion laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory 
thereof or supplementary thereto), except that (1) any contract en-
tered into under section 9, subsection (d) of the Reclamation Project 
Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187, 1193; 43 U. S. C , sec. 485h) for payment 
of those portions of the costs of constructing, operating, and main-
taining the project which are allocated to irrigation and assigned to 
be paid by the contracting organization shall provide for the repay-
ment of the portion of the construction cost of the project assigned 
to any contract unit or, if the contract unit be divided into two or 
more blocks, to any such block over a period of not more than fifty 
years (exclusive of any permissible development period) or as near 
thereto as is consistent with the adoption and operation of a vari-
able payment formula which, being based on full repayment within 
the said period under average conditions, permits variance in the re-
quired annual payments in the light of economic factors pertinent 
to the ability of the organization to pay; (2) the construction charge 
obligation of the Ochoco Irrigation District set out in its contract 
with the United States dated April 24, 1950, may, if the district so 
elects, be merged with and paid under the same conditions as other 
obligations undertaken by it under this Act; (3) that portion of the 
cost of constructing the new works of the project which is allocated 
to irrigation but is beyond the ability of the water users to pay shall 
be charged to and returnable to the reclamation fund from net rev-
enues derived by the Secretary of the Interior from his sale of power 
from the Dalles project, Oregon, which are over and beyond the 
amounts required to amortize the power investment therein, as pro-
vided in section 5 of the Act of December 22, 1944 (58 Stat. 887, 
890; 16 U. S. C , sec. 825s), and to return interest on the unamortized 
balance of said investment; and (4) construction of any of the new 
works herein authorized shall not ba commenced until the Secretary 
shall have certified to the Congress, in accordance with the provi-
sions of the Act of July 31, 1953 (67 Stat. 261, 266), that an adequate 
soil survey and land classification of not less than twenty thousand 
acres of land to be served by the project has been made and that those 
lands are susceptible to the production of agricultural crops by means 
of irrigation or that their susceptibility to the sustained production 
of agricultural crops by means of irrigation has been demonstrated 
70 
S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 99a-AUG. 6, 1966 
1(359 
in practice. Those costs of constructing the project which are prop-
erly allocable to flood control and to the preservation and propaga-
tion of fish and wildlife as provided in existing law, and the like 
costs of operating and maintaining the same shall be nonreturnable 
and nonreimbursable under the reclamations laws. 
SEC. 3. The Secretary is authorized, in connection with the Crooked 
Eiver project, to construct minimum basic public recreational fa-
cilities and to arrange for the operation and maintenance of the same 
by an appropriate State or local agency or organization. The cost 
of such facilities shall be nonreturnable and nonreimbursable under 
the Federal reclamation laws. 
SEC. 4. In order to promote the preservation and propagation of 
fish and wildlife in accordance with section 2 of the Act of August 
14, 1946 (60 Stat. 1080, 16 U. S. C , sec. 661a), an appropriate screen 
and fish ladder shall be provided at the diversion canal headworks 
of the Crooked River project below Prineville Reservoir and a mini-
mum release of ten cubic feet per second shall be maintained from 
said reservoir for the benefit of downstream fishlife during those 
months when there is no other discharge therefrom, but this release 
may be reduced for brief temporary periods by the Secretary when-
ever he may find that release of the full ten cubic feet per second is 
harmful to the primary purpose of the project. 
SEC. 5. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated $6,339,000 
for construction of the new works of the Crooked River project, plus 
such amounts, if any, as may be required by reason of changes in 
the cost of construction work of the types involved therein as shown 
by engineering indices and, in addition thereto, such sums as may 
be required to operate and maintain said project. 
Approved August 6, 1956. 
Recreational fa-
ciUties. 
Screen and 
ladder. 
16 u s e 662. 
jfish 
^propriation. 
Public Law 993 
CHAPTER 981 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain 
the Little Wood River reclamation project, Idaho. 
August 6, 19£:6 
[S. 3227] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That, for the prin-
cipal purposes of improving the irrigation water supply of approxi-
mately ten thousand acres of land in Blaine County, Idaho, and assist-
ing in the control of floods, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized 
to undertake an enlargement of the Little Wood River Reservoir and to 
operate and maintain the same in accordance with the Federal recla-
mation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory 
thereof or supplementary thereto). Any contract entered into under 
section 9, subsection (d), of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (63 
Stat. 1187, 1193; 43 U. S. C. 485h) for payment of those portions of 
the costs of constructing, operating, and maintaining the Little Wood 
River project which are properly allocable to irrigation and which are 
assigned to be paid by the contracting organization shall provide for 
the repayment of the construction cost over a period of not more than 
forty years or as near thereto as is consistent with the adoption and 
operation of a variable payment formula which, being based on full 
repayment within the period stated under average conditions, permits 
variance in the required annual payments in the light of economic 
factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay. 
SEC. 2. The Secretary is authorized to construct minimum basic 
public recreational facilities in connection with the Little Wood River 
L i t t l e 
W o o d 
River project. 
43 u s e 391. 
Recreational fa-
cilities.