An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Washoe reclamation project Nevada and California.
PL 84-858 (S.497), enacted 08/01/1956

70 STAT.] 
PUBLIC LAW 858-AUG. 1, 1956 
775 
Public Law 858 
CHAPTER 809 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain 
the Washoe reclamation project, Nevada and California. 
August 1, 1956 
[S. 497] 
43 u s e 371 note. 
Contract. 
43 u s e 485h. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That, for the pur- ti<^^pJSjecf,''rf«S^^-
poses of furnishing water for the irrigation of approximately fifty caiif. 
thousand acres of land in the Carson and Truckee Eiver Basins, 
Nevada and California, providing drainage service to approximately 
thirty-one thousand acres of land therein, firming the existing water 
supplies of lands under the Truckee River storage project and the 
Newlands project, controlling floods, providing hydroelectric power, 
development of fish and wildlife resources, and for other beneficial 
purposes, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct, 
operate, and maintain the Washoe reclamation project consisting of 
two principal reservoirs at the Stampede and Watasheamu sites, to-
gether with other necessary works for the impounding, diversion, and 
the delivery of water, the generation and transmission of hydroelectric 
power, and the drainage of lands. 
The dam at the Stampede site shall 
be so constructed as to permit its ultimate enlargement to a height at 
which the reservoir will have a capacity of approximately one hundred 
and seventy-five thousand acre-feet. 
SEC. 2. (a) In constructing, operating, and maintaining the works 
authorized in section 1 of this Act, the Secretary shall be governed by 
the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 389, and 
Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) except as is other-
wise provided in this Act. 
(b) Any contract entered into under section 9, subsection (d) of the 
Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187,1193; 43 U. S. C , 1952 
edition, sec. 458h) for payment of those portions of the costs of con-
structing, operating, and maintaining the Washoe reclamation project 
which are properly allocable to irrigation and drainage and which are 
assigned to be paid by the contracting organization may provide for 
the repayment of the portion of the construction cost of the project 
assigned to any project contract unit or, if the contract unit be divided 
into two or more irrigation or drainage 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 adop-
tion and operation of a variable payment formula which, being based 
on full repayment within the period stated under normal conditions, 
permits variance in the required annual payments in the light of eco-
nomic factors pertinent to the ability of the organization to pay: Pro-
vided^ That any contract for a supplemental water supply for irriga-
tion under this Act may omit provisions complying with the third 
sentence of paragraph (a) of section 46 of the Act of May 25,1926 (44 
Stat. 649) if such contract, in lieu of such provisions, provides that the 
pro rata share of the irrigation allocation which is attributable to 
furnishing irrigation benefits, in each particular year, to land held in 
private ownership by any one ownef in excess of one hundred and sixty 
irrigated acres, shall be returned with interest determined in accord-
ance with subparagraph (c) of this section, except that such payment 
for the excess lands shall not exceed an amount equal to the increased 
payment capacity of the excess lands, as determined by the Secretary 
of the Interior, resulting from the supplemental water supply. 
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, all 
net revenues derived from the sale of commercial power from the 
Washoe reclamation project shall be applied, first, to the amortization 
of that portion of the cost of constructing the project which is allocated 
S u p p l e m e n t al 
water supply. 
43 u s e 423e. 
Net revenue •• 
776 
PUBLIC LAW 858-AUG. 1, 1956 
[70 ST A T . 
43 u s e 485a. 
A l p i n e County, 
Calif. 
L i t t l e Truckee 
River. 
F a c i l i t i e s for 
a c c e s s , 
p u b l i c 
health, etc. 
Report to C o n -
g r e s s i o n a l com-
mittees. 
to commercial power with interest on the unamortized balance thereof 
at the average rate (which rate shall be certified by the Secretary of 
the Treasury) paid by the United States on its marketable long-term 
securities outstanding on the date of this Act, and thereafter to the 
amortization of that portion of the cost of constructing the project 
which is allocated to irrigation but which is beyond the ability of the 
contracting irrigation organizations to repay as provided above, includ-
ing interest that would have been paid by the irrigators on that portion 
of the irrigation allocation attributable to furnishing irrigation bene-
fits to excess lands which is not repaid under section 2 (b) above: 
Provided, That the Secretary, prior to the delivery of project water 
supplies, shall have entered into a contract or contracts with an organi-
zation or organizations as defined in paragraph 2 (g) of the Recla-
mation Project Act of 1939 (53 Stat. 1187) which have the capacity to 
levy assessments upon all taxable real property located within their 
boundaries to assist in making repayments. 
(d) Water users in Alpine County, California, shall have the oppor-
tunity to contract for project water made available by the Watasheamu 
Reservoir before such project water is offered for the development of 
any new land in Nevada. 
Should any such project water be contracted 
for by Alpine County water users, then in that event such users shall 
be permitted to exchange such water for existing rights to natural 
flow or stored water of the West Carson River. 
(e) The use of waters of the Little Truckee River solely for the 
generation of electric power by the Washoe project shall not impair or 
preclude the appropriation of such waters in the future for beneficial 
consumptive use within the Little Truckee River watershed in Cali-
fornia to the same extent as such waters may be presently available for 
such appropriation in the State of California: Provided, That if and 
when an interstate compact covering the distribution and use of the 
waters of the Truckee and Carson Rivers is approved by the Legisla-
tures of the States of California and Nevada and is consented to by 
Congress, the operation of the Washoe reclamation project shall be in 
conformance with such compact, and the foregoing restriction shall 
not apply. 
SEC. 3. The Secretary is authorized to investigate, plan, construct, 
operatej and maintain minimum basic facilities for access to, and for 
the maintenance of public health and safety and the protection of 
public property on, lands withdrawn or acquired for the development 
of the Washoe project, to conserve the scenery and natural, historic, 
and archeologic objects, and to provide for public use and enjoyment of 
the same and of the water areas created by this project by such means 
as are consistent with its primary purposes. 
The Secretary is author-
ized to withdraw from entry or other disposition under the public 
land laws such public lands as are necessary for the construction, 
operation, and maintenance of said minimum basic facilities and for 
the other purposes specified in this section and to dispose of such lands 
to Federal, State, and local governmental agencies by lease, transfer, 
exchange, or conveyance upon such terms and conditions as will best 
promote their development and operation in the public interest. 
The 
Secretary is further authorized to investigate the need for acquiring 
other lands for said purposes and to report thereon to the Committees 
on Interior and Insular Affairs of the Senate and House of Representa-
tives, but no lands shall be acquired solely for any of these purposes 
other than access to project lands and the maintenance of public health 
and safety and the protection of public property thereon without 
further authorization by the Congress. All costs incurred pursuant to 
this section shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable. 
70 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 859-AUG. 1, 1956 
777 
SEC. 4. Facilities shall be provided for the development of the 
fish 
^f^ 
and wildlife resources of the project area including facilities to permit 
increased minimum water releases from Lake Tahoe and restoration 
of the Pyramid Lake fishery. The cost of such facilities, including 
operation and maintenance, shall be nonreimbursable. 
The cost to the 
Federal Government of constructing these facilities shall not exceed 
$2,000,000. This amount shall not include the cost of measures under-
taken, pursuant to section 2 of the Act of August 14, 1946 (60 Stat. 
1080, 16 IT. S. C. 661a), to mitigate damages to fish and wildlife re-
sources occasioned by the Washoe project as authorized by section 1 of 
this Act. 
SEC. 5. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for construc-
tion of the Washoe reclamation project the sum of $43,700,000 plus 
such amounts, if any, as may be req^uired by reason of changes in con-
struction costs as indicated by engineering cost indices applicable to 
the types of construction involved therein and, in addition thereto, 
such sums as may be required to operate and maintain the project: 
Provided, That the appropriation of funds for the construction, opera-
tion, or maintenance of facilities authorized by section 4 of this Act 
shall not be from the reclamation fund. 
Approved August 1, 1956. 
F i s h and wlld-
resourcas. 
Limitation. 
16 u s e 662. 
Appropri ation. 
Public Law 859 
CHAPTER 810 
AN ACT 
To authorize the Administrator of General Services to convey certain lands in 
the State of Rhode Island to the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. 
August i, 195S 
[S. 319S] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress asseiribled. That the Adminis-
trator of General Services is authorized and directed to convey by 
quitclaim deed to the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, all 
right, title, and interest of the United States in and to approximately 
three and four-tenths acres of land, including improvements thereon, 
in such town, upon payment by said town of the fair market value of 
said property as determined by said Administrator after competent 
appraisal and upon such terms and conditions as may in the determina* 
tion of said Administrator be necessary to protect the interest of the 
United States. 
Such land, which is part of a tract formerly held by 
the Department of the Navy and declared surplus to the needs of 
such Department, is more particularly described as follows: 
Begin-
ning at a point in the easterly line of Post Road which point is 100 
feet northerly from a concrete bound at the northwest corner of land 
now or formerly of Dot Seafood Company; thence the line runs in a 
northerly direction 500 feet bounded westerly by said Post Road; 
thence turning an interior an^le of 90 degrees, 5 minutes, 20 seconds, 
the line runs m an easterly direction 262.74 feet; thence turning an 
interior angle of 96 degrees, 32 minutes, 1 second, the line runs in a 
southerly direction 503.27 feet; thence turning an interior angle of 83 
degrees, 27 minutes, 59 seconds, the line runs in a westerly direction 
320.0 feet to the point of beginning; said line being 100 feet from and 
parallel to the northerly line of land now or formerly of the Dot Sea-
food Company and making an interior angle of 89 degrees, 54 min-
utes, 40 seconds with the first described line; the last three courses 
being bounded northerly, easterly and southerly by land of the United 
States of America. 
The above-described tract contains three and 
four-tenths acres more or less. 
Approved August 1, 1956. 
North Kingstown, 
R. I. 
Conveyance.