An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to approve an agreement entered into by the Sobobs Band of Mission Indians releasing a claim against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Eastern Municipal Water District, California, and to provide for construction of a water distribution system and a water supply for the Soboba Indian Reservation
PL 91-557 (H.R.3328), enacted 12/17/1970

84 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 91-557-DEC. 17, 1970 
1465 
Public Law 91-557 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to approve an agreement entered into 
by the Soboba Band of Mission Indians releasing a claim against the Metro-
politan Water District of Southern California and Eastern Municipal Water 
District, California, and to provide for construction of a water distribution 
system and a water supply for the Soboba Indian Reservation; and to authorize 
long-term leases of land on the reservation. 
December 17, 15i70 
[H. R. 3328] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That the Secretary 
of the Interior is authorized to approve a release agreement to be 
negotiated by and between the Soboba Band of Mission Indians, the 
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, hereinafter called 
Metropolitan, and the Eastern Municipal Water District, hereinafter 
called Eastern, which provides among other things that— 
(a) Metropolitan shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior for the 
use and benefit of the Soboba Indians the sum of $30,000. Payment shall 
be made when the lands that comprise the Soboba Indian Reservation 
have been annexed to Metropolitan and to Eastern. The annexation 
shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the release agreement and 
the annexation and water service agreement to be executed pursuant 
to section 2 of this Act. 
(b) The Soboba Band of Mission Indians releases Metropolitan and 
and Eastern, their successors or assigns, from all claim it may have 
based on past, present, or future actual or claimed damage to, or inter-
ference with, the 
flow^ 
of waters from the springs on the Soboba Indian 
Reservation lands, or on actual or claimed interference with, or damage 
to, the water supply to or upon the lands of the Soboba Indian Reserva-
tion, which claims arise from construction and operation of a certain 
tunnel through the San Jacinto mountains constructed in the 1930's. 
(c) The release agreement shall be etfective upon the completion of 
the concurrent annexation of the Soboba Indian Reservation lands to 
Metropolitan and Eastern and upon the execution of an annexation 
and water service agreement authorized by section 2 of this Act. 
SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Interior and the Soboba Band of 
Indians are authorized to enter into an annexation and water service 
agreement with Eastern which provides, among other things, that— 
(a) The Soboba Indian Reservation lands may be annexed to Eastern 
and Metropolitan. 
(b) No annexation charge or back taxes regardless of form shall be 
made for said annexation. 
(c) The Secretary and Eastern shall jointly determine the additional 
new water supply and distribution facilities that shall be constructed 
and the existing facilities that shall be rehabilitated in order to provide 
domestic and irrigation water to each consumer within the Soboba 
Indian Reservation. Subject to the appropriation authorization limita-
tion in section 5, construction or rehabilitation of facilities to provide 
w^ater service to the Soboba Indian Reservation shall be undertaken by 
Eastern, shall be financed by the United States, wath Eastern provid-
ing such funds as the Secretary of the Interior and Eastern jointly 
determine represent a prorated share of joint-use facilities constructed 
outside of the Soboba Reservation, and with the $30,000 paid pursuant 
to subsection 1(a) being applied to the construction or rehabilitation. 
Facilities constructed within the Soboba Reservation shall be the prop-
erty of the United States and facilities constructed outside of the 
Soboba Reservation shall be the property of Eastern. 
Soboba Indian 
Reservation, Calif. 
Water distribu-
tion system; claim 
release agreement. 
Payment. 
Effective date. 
Land annexation. 
Annexation 
charge, etc., 
waiver. 
Water service 
agreement. 
1466 
PUBLIC LAW 91-557-DEC. 17, 1970 
[84 STAT. 
Maintenance. 
New service 
connections, 
financing. 
Exception. 
Delivery. 
Rates. 
Collection. 
Delinquent 
payment. 
Title, transfer. 
Rights-of-way. 
(d) Eastern shall have the exclusive right, without charge, to use 
the supply and distribution facilities owned by the United States lying 
within the Soboba Indian Reservation, and Eastern shall assume the 
responsibility for maintaining and operating such facilities. 
(e) Upon assumption of operation and maintenance of the system 
by Eastern following completion of the initial installation and rehabil-
itation work, any new service connections applied for by residents or 
consumers within the Soboba Indian Reservation, and any other addi-
tional water main extensions or facilities required for serving new 
development within the Soboba Indian Reservation, shall be financed 
by the applicants for such service, in accordance with the standard 
rules and regulations of Eastern, except as indicated in the next sen-
tence. As long as title to the lands involved is held in trust by the 
United States, such new service connections or additional water main 
extensions or facilities may be financed by the United States to the 
extent agreed upon by the Secretary of the Interior. All such new 
service connections, additional extensions, or facilities shall be con-
structed by Eastern. All such new service connections, additional exten-
sions, or facilities financed by parties other than the United States 
shall be the property of Eastern, All such service connections, addi-
tional extensions, or facilities financed by the United States shall be 
the property of the United States subject to exclusive use by Eastern 
without charge. 
(f) Subject to the limitations of capacity and location of the jointly 
agreed upon facilities. Eastern shall deliver domestic and irrigation 
water to each individual consumer within the Soboba Indian Reserva-
tion in accordance with the prevailing standard rules and regulations 
of Eastern and the provisions of the annexation and water service 
agreement. 
(g) The retail rates applicable to water service within the Soboba 
Indian Reservation shall be mutually agreed upon by Eastern and 
the Secretary of the Interior, and shall be neither less than nor more 
than the estimated cost of such water service to Eastern, adjusted to 
reflect differences between estimated costs and actual costs in preceding 
rate periods. Eastern shall make collections for service in accordance 
with its prevailing rules and regulations and the Secretary of the 
Interior shall guarantee payment to Eastern of any delinquent bill for 
providing water service to lands held in trust within the Soboba Indian 
Reservation. Water service to a consumer shall be discontinued in 
accordance with the prevailing rules and regulations of Eastern when 
a bill for service becomes delinquent, and shall not be resumed as long 
as the bill is delinquent without prior approval of the Secretary of 
the Interior. The Secretary shall not approve a resumption of service 
to an Indian who is able to pay all or a portion of a dehnquent bill and 
fails to do so. 
(h) When title restrictions are removed from any part or all of 
the Soboba Indian Reservation land, the responsibility and duties of 
the United States under the annexation and water service agreement 
shall cease with respect to such land, except for the installation and 
rehabilitation obligations undertaken in subsections 2 (c) and (e) 
unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. Title to the water distri-
bution facilities serving such lands shall at that time become the prop-
erty of Eastern and the obligation of Eastern to provide water service 
to such land at cost to the district shall likewise cease. 
SEC. 3. The Secretary is authorized to grant to Eastern without 
charge and subject to such conditions as he may prescribe (a) rights-of-
way over Soboba Reservation lands necessary for the use, maintenance, 
and operation of supply and distribution facilities owned by the 
United States; (b) rights-of-way within which new service connections 
84 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 91-557-DEC. 17, 1970 
14(57 
jire installed after initial installation and i^habilitation work lias been 
completed by Eastern; and (c) rights-of-way necessary for additional 
water main extensions and other waterworks facilities required for 
serving new development: Provided. That where title to the Soboba 
Reservation lands involved has been conveyed in fee simple by the 
United States the rights-of-way hereby authorized shall be subject to 
prior approval of {ho, owner of record. Eastern shall constnict, use, 
maintain, operate, or install the equipment or facilities for which the 
rights-of-way are granted in a manner that avoids damage to build-
ings, crops, or trees, or interference with growing of crops. Should 
such damage or interference occur. Eastern shall compensate the 
United States as trustee, or the fee owner of record. The rights-of-way 
granted shall revert to the United States or the owner of record when 
no longer required for the purpose or purposes for which granted. 
SEC. 4. Nothing in this Act shall permit Metropolitan or Eastern, or 
their successors or assigns, to alienate, encumber, or tax any property 
l)elonging to an Indian or Indian band which is held in trust by the 
United States of America, or which is subject to a restriction against 
alienation imposed by the Ignited States of America, while such 
pro|)erty is exempt therefrom nndei' Federal case law oi- ])rovisioiis 
of other Federal statutes. 
SEC. 5. There are authorized to be ai)propriated to carry out the 
provisions of subse<'tion 2(c) not to exceed $316,658, in addition to the 
unexpended balance of sums previously appropriated and available 
for a water supply to the Soboba Reservation and the $30,000 provided 
pursuant to subsection 2(c), plus or minus such amounts, if any, as 
may l)e justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in construction 
costs as indicated by engineering cost indices applicable to the types of 
construction involved. There are also authorized to be appropriated 
such sums as may be necessary to make any payments guaranteed pur-
suant to subsection 2(g). Xo funds shall be appropriated pur-
suant to the authorization contained in this section until sixty calendar 
<lays (not counting days on which either the House of Representatives 
or the Senate is not in session because of an adjournment of more than 
three calendar tlays to a day certain) after the Secretary has submitted 
to the (^ongress a plan for the construction and use of the water supply 
and distribution facilities under subsection 2(c), and for the repay-
ment of costs as provided in section 6, and then only if within said 
sixty days neither the House nor the Senate Committee on Interior 
and Insular Affairs disapproves by committee resolution the plan 
submitted. 
SEC. 6. Xothing in this Act shall affect the right of the Soboba 
Indians to pursue theii- claim against the United States under the Act 
of August 13, 1946 (60 Stat. 1049), now pending in docket numbered 
SOA before the Indian Claims Commission, but any expenditures under 
subsections 2 (c), (e), and (g), and the $30,000 paid by the Metro-
politan and used pursuant to subsection 2 (c), may be used by the Com-
mission either in mitigation of damages or as an offset against any 
award which the Indians may receive. If such amount exceeds the 
award, the excess, and all expenditures by the United States under 
subsections 2 (c), (e), and (g) after the date of the award, shall be 
repaid to the United States, without interest, by deductions from reve-
nues received by the Soboba Band or its members from the sale, lease, 
or i-ental of the lands, such deductions to be in amounts that will 
reimburse the United States within fifty years, or as soon thereafter as 
lK)Ssible, according to estimates of the Secretary of the Interior, which 
estimates may be revised from time to time: Provided^ That deductions 
in any one year shall not exceed 50 per centum of the revenues received 
in that vear. 
Trust lands, 
alienation, etc.; 
prohibition. 
Appropriation. 
Time limitation; 
construction plan, 
submittal to Con-
gress. 
25 use 70. 
Deductions. 
Limitation. 
1468 
PUBLIC LAW 91-558-DEC. 17, 1970 
[84 STAT. 
Land assignment 
modification. 
Long-term 
l e a s e s . 
Ante, p. 302. 
SEC. 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any assignment 
of land on the Soboba Eeservation shall be modified, reduced in size, 
revoked, or otherwise limited by the governing body of the Soboba 
Band, or by the Secretary of the Interior if in his judgment the gov-
erning body fails to act effectively, in order to assure that the benefits 
from the development of the land with water provided pursuant to this 
Act, other than for subsistence purposes, will accrue to the Band rather 
than to the assignee. 
SEC. 8. The second sentence of section 1 of the Act of August 9,1955 
(69 Stat. 539), as amended (25 U.S.C. 415), is hereby amended by 
inserting after "Gila River Reservation," the words "the Soboba 
Indian Reservation,". 
Approved December 17, 1970. 
December 17, 1970 
[S.4536] 
Public Law 91-558 
AN ACT 
To amend the Small Business Act. 
Small Business 
Act, amendment. 
Revolving 
funds. 
80 Stat. 132; 
81 Stat. 268. 
15 u s e 633. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress 
assembled, 
TITLE I—SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 
S E C 101. Paragraph (4) of section 4(c) of the Small Business Act 
is amended— 
(1) by striking out "$1,900,000,000" and inserting in lieu thereof 
"$2,200,000,000"; 
(2) by striking out "$300,000,000" and inserting in lieu thereof 
"$5iOO,000,000";and 
(3) by striking out "$200,000,000" and inserting in lieu thereof 
"$300,000,000". 
TITLE II—AUTHORIZATION FOR PRESIDENT TO STA-
BILIZE PRICES, RENTS, WAGES, AND SALARIES 
SEC. 201. Section 206 of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 (84 
Stat. 799-800; Public Law 91-379) is amended by striking out "Febru-
ary 28, 1971," and inserting in lieu thereof "March 31, 1971,"; and 
by striking out "Marcli 1,1971," and inserting in lieu thereof "April 1, 
1971,". 
Approved December 17, 1970. 
December 19, 1970 
[H. R.15770] 
Public Law 91-559 
AN ACT 
To provide for c-onsei-ving surface waters; to preserve and improve habitat for 
migratory waterfowl and other wildlife resources; to reduce runoff, soil and 
wind erosion, and contribute to flood control; and for other purposes. 
Be it eniicted hy the Senate and Houne of Representatiees 
of the 
Water Bank Act. United Statcs of Ameiica in Congress assembled., Tliat this Act may 
be cited as the "Water Bank Act". 
Water bank pro- 
gjj(.^ ^^ ^he Cougress fiuds that it is in the public interest to pre-
'•^^'^' 
serve, restore, and improve the wetlands of the Nation, and thereby to