An Act to expand and extend the desalting program being conducted by the Secretary of the Interior, and for other purposes
PL 92-60 (S.991), enacted 07/29/1971

85 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 92-60-JULY 29, 1971 
159 
SEC. 6. N'one of the funds distributed per capita under the provisions 
Tax exemption. 
of this Act shall be subject to Federal or State income taxes. 
SEO. 7. Sums payable to adult living enroUees or to adult heirs or 
Payment. 
legatees of deceased enrollees shall be paid directly to such persons. 
Sums payable to enrollees or their heirs or legatees who are less 
than twenty-one years of age or who are under legal disability shall 
be paid in accordance with such procedures, including the establish-
ment of trusts, as the Secretary of the Interior determines appropriate 
to protect the best interests of such persons. 
SEC. 8. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prescribe rules 
and regulations to effect the provisions of this Act, including the 
establishment of deadlines. 
Approved July 29, 1971. 
Public Law 92-60 
AN ACT 
July 29, 1971 
To expand and extend the desalting program being conducted by the Secretary 
[s. 991] 
of the Interior, and for other purposes. 
Rules and 
regulations. 
The Saline 
Water Conversion 
studies. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That this Act may 
be cited as "The Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971". 
Act o
f 1971. 
SEC. 2. The Congress in consideration of the Federal responsibility 
for water resource conservation by means of comprehensive planning, 
planning and construction of water resource development projects, 
administration of the navigable waterways, and maintenance of water 
quality standards finds that the technology for the conversion of saline 
and other chemically contaminated waters is vital to all these areas 
of responsibility. It is the policy of the Congress, therefore, to pro-
vide for the development and demonstration of practicable means to 
convert saline and other chemically contaminated water to a quality 
suitable for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and other beneficial 
uses. 
SEC. 3. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to— 
Research 
(a) conduct, encourage, and promote basic scientific research 
and fundamental studies to deveLop effective and economical proc-
esses and equipment for the purpose of converting saline and 
other chemically contaminated water into water suitable for bene-
ficial consumptive uses; 
(b) pursue the findings of research and studies authorized by 
this Act having potential practical applications to matters other 
than water treatment to the stage that such findings can be pub-
lished in an effective form for utilization by others; 
(c) conduct engineering and technical work including the 
design, construction, and testing of pilot plants, test beds, and 
modules to develop desalting processes and plant design concepts 
to the point of demonstration on a practical scale; 
(d) study methods for the recovery and marketing of byprod-
ucts resulting from the desalination of water to offset the costs 
of treatment and to reduce impact on the environment from the 
discharge of brines into lakes, streams, and other waters; and 
(e) undertake economic studies and surveys to determine pres-
ent and prospective costs of producing water for beneficial con-
sumptive purposes in various parts of the United States by the 
160 
PUBLIC LAW 92-60-JULY 29, 1971 
[85 STAT. 
Coordination. 
42 u s e 1962 
note. 
Prototype 
plants, prelimi-
nary investiga-
tions. 
Report to 
Congress. 
Federal agen-
cies, assistance. 
State or other 
agency, assist-
ance. 
Admini strati 
ve 
provisions. 
saline water processes as compared with other standard methods, 
and by means of mathematical models or other methodologies 
prepare and maintain information concerning the relation of 
desalting to other aspects of State, regional, and national compre-
hensive water resource planning: Provided,, That in carrying out 
this function, the Secretary shall coordinate these studies with 
planning being performed under the provisions of the Water 
Resources Planning Act (79 Stat. 244), as amended. 
SEC. 4. (a) The Secretary is authorized and directed to conduct 
preliminary investigations and to explore potential cooperative agree-
ments with non-Federal utilities and governmental entities in order 
to develop recommendations for Federal participation in the construc-
tion, operation, and maintenance of prototype plants utilizing desalt-
ing technologies for the production of water for consumptive use. 
(b) The Secretary is authorized and directed to report to the Presi-
dent and to the Congress, not later than one year after the date this 
subsection becomes effective, his recommendation as to the best oppor-
tunity for the early construction of a large-scale prototype desalting 
plant. In making his recommendation, the Secretary shall consider the 
following— 
(i) plant size and process type best suited, within the presently 
available technology, to demonstrate the practicability of con-
struction and operation of a large-scale plant for water supply on 
a reliable basis, and to provide information on the management 
problems and econoijaics of such operation; 
(ii) availability of cooperating entities or utilities willing to 
enter, and capable of entering, into agreements and contracts to 
provide a market for water and an operating agency for the 
plants; 
(iii) availability of entities or utilities willing to enter, and 
capable of entering, into agreements and contracts to provide an 
energy source for the plants; 
(iv) availability of a site, the environmental implications of 
the energy source, and brine disposal problems; and 
(v) need for the development of new water sources in the area. 
(c) In carrying out the provisions of this section, the Secretary 
shall utilize the expertise of the water and power marketing agencies 
of the Department of the Interior or of other Federal agencies to 
insure that the recommended prototype plant and the supporting 
agreements are fully integrated and compatible with the water and 
power systems of the region, 
(d) The Secretary is authorized to accept financial and other assist-
ance from any State or public agency in connection with studies or 
surveys relating to saline water conversion problems and facilities 
and to enter into contracts with respect to such assistance. 
SEC. 5, In carrying out his functions under this Act, the Secretary 
may— 
(a) make grants to educational institutions and scientific orga-
nizations, and enter into contracts with such institutions and 
organizations and with industrial or engineering firms; 
(b) acquire the services of chemists, physicists, engineers, and 
other personnel by contract or otherwise; 
(c) utilize the facilities of Federal scientific laboratories; 
(d) establish and operate necessary facilities and test sites to 
carry on the continuous research, testing, development, and pro-
85 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 92-60-JULY 29, 1971 
161 
graming necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Act; 
(e) acquire secret processes, technical data, inventions, patent 
applications, patents, licenses, land and interests in land (includ-
ing water rights), plants and facilities, and other property or 
rights by purchase, license, lease, or donation; 
(f) assemble and maintain pertinent and current scientiJfic lit-
erature, both domestic and foreign, and issue bibliographical data 
with respect thereto; 
(g) cause on-site inspections to be made of promising projects, 
domestic and foreign, and, in the case of projects located in the 
United States, cooperate and participate in their development 
when the purposes of this Act will be served thereby; 
(h) foster and participate in regional, national, and interna-
tional conferences relating to saline water conversion; 
(i) coordinate, correlate, and publish information with a view 
to advancing the development of low-cost saline water conversion 
projects; and 
(j) cooperate with other Federal departments and agencies, 
with State and local departments, agencies and instrumentalities, 
and with interested persons, firms, institutions, and organizations. 
SEC. 6. (a) Research and development activities undertaken by the 
Research and 
Secretary shall be coordinated or conducted jointly with the Depart- coord°n^ro"n'with 
ment of Defense to the end that developments under this Act which Defense oepart-
are primarily of a civil nature will contribute to the defense of the '"^"'" 
Nation and that developments which are primarily of a military nature 
will, to the greatest practicable extent compatible with military and 
security requirements, be available to advance the purposes of this 
Act and to strengthen the civil economy of the Nation. 
(b) The Secretary will cooperate with the Administrator of the pro^J^t^"*"^"*^^ 
Environmental Protection Agency to insure that research and devel- cooperation. ^^"''^' 
opment work performed under this Act makes the fullest possible 
contribution to the improvement of processes and techniques for the 
treatment of saline and other chemically contaminated waters and 
to avoid the duplication of the experience, expertise, and data regard-
ing desalting technologies which have been acquired in the perform-
ance of the Saline Water Conversion Act. 
(c) The Secretary shall cooperate fully with the Atomic Energy 
^^c, HEW, etc, 
Commission, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the '=°°p^'"^t^°"" 
Department of State, and other concerned agencies in the interest of 
achieving the objectives of this Act. 
(d) All research within the United States contracted for, spon- . Public informa-
sored, cosponsored, or authorized under authorit}^ of this Act, shall rights!^*^"' 
be provided for in such manner that all information, uses, products, 
processes, patents, and other developments resulting from such 
research developed by Government expenditure will (with such excep-
tions and limitations, if any, as the Secretary may find to be necessary 
in the interest of national defense) be available to the general public. 
This subsection shall not be so construed as to deprive the owner of 
any background patent relating thereto of such rights as he may have 
thereunder. Within six months of the date of this Act, the Secretary 
Publication in 
shall publish rules in the Federal Register to give effect to the provi- 
^ ^
"
^
^
^ Register. 
sions of this subsection and shall subsequently publish all revisions 
in the same manner. 
(e) The Secretary may dispose of water and byproducts resulting 
r^ducts^dil ^o' 
from his operations under this Act. All moneys received from dis- '' "'^ ^ i^posa . 
positions under this section shall be paid into the Treasury as miscel-
laneous receipts except where such operations may be undertaken as 
a part of a Federal reclamation project in which case the financial 
162 
PUBLIC LAW 92-60-JULY 29, 1971 
[85 STAT. 
43 u s e 391 
note. 
Rules and 
regulations. 
Report to 
President and 
Congress. 
Definitions. 
Appropriations. 
provisions of Reclamation Law (32 Stat. 388 and Acts amendatory 
thereof and supplementary thereto) will govern. 
(f) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to alter existing law with 
respect to the ownership and control of water. 
SEC. 7. The Secretary of the Interior may issue rules and regulations 
to effectuate the purposes of this Act. 
SEC. 8. The Secretary shall submit to the President and to the Con-
gress not later than December 31,1975, a report on— 
(i) the status of research and development work in progress 
under the provisions of section 3, subsections (a), (b), (c), and 
(d), along with a program for the orderly termination of these 
activities in accordance with subsection 10(b) of this Act; and 
(ii) the status of work in progress under the provisions of sub-
section 3(e) and section 4 along with recommendations for the 
integration of these remaining functions within the on-going 
water resource programs of the Department of the Interior. 
SEC. 9. As used in this Act— 
(a) the term "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Interior; 
(b) the term "saline w^ater" includes sea water, brackish water, 
mineralized ground or surface water, and irrigation return flows; 
(c) the term "other chemically contaminated water" refers to 
waters which contain chemicals susceptible to removal by 
desalting processes; 
(d) the term "United States" extends to and includes the Dis-
trict of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, territories 
of American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands; and the 
provisions of this Act shall also apply to the Trust Territory of 
the Pacific Islands; 
(e) the term "pilot plant" means an experimental unit of small 
size, usually less than one hundred thousand gallons per day 
capacity, used for early evaluation and development of new or 
improved processes and to obtain technical and engineering data; 
(f) the term "test bed" means an intermediate-sized, experi-
mental desalting plant of up to two million gallons per day capac-
ity used for further evaluation and refinement of processes in the 
field and designed to facilitate the incorporation of experimental 
features for performance testing and to permit process changes 
and improvements as required; 
(g) the term "module" means a section or integral portion of 
a desalting plant which is used initially to study large-scale tech-
nology and critical design features in preparation for subsequent 
prototype construction; 
(h) the term "prototype" means a full-size, first-of-a-kind pro-
duction plant used for the development, study, and demonstra-
tion of full-sized technology, plant operation, and process 
economics. 
SEC. 10. (a) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the 
provisions of this Act during fiscal year 1972, the sum of $27,025,000, 
to remain available until expended, as follows: 
(1) Research expense, not more than $5,475,000; 
(2) Development expense, not more than $10,200,000; 
(3) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, 
and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test 
facilities, not more than $7,385,000; 
(4) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, 
and maintenance of saline water conversion modules, not more 
than $1,425,000; and 
85 STAT. ] 
PUBLIC LAW 92-62-AUG. 3, 1971 
163 
(5) Administration and coordination, not more than $2,540,000. 
Expenditures and obligations under paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) 
of this subsection may be increased by not more than 10 per centum, 
and expenditures and obligations under paragraph (5) may be 
increased by not more than 2 per centum, if any such increase under 
any paragraph is accompanied by an equal decrease in expenditures 
and obligations under one or more of the other paragraphs. 
(b) There are authorized to be appropriated such sums, to remain 
available until expended, as may be specified in annual appropriation 
authorization Acts to carry out the provisions of this Act during the 
fiscal years 1973 to 1977, inclusive, and to finance, for not more than 
three years beyond the end of said period, such grants, contracts, coop-
erative agreements, and studies as may theretofore have been under-
taken pursuant to this Act and such activities as are required to 
correlate, coordinate, and round out the results of studies and research 
undertaken pursuant to this Act. 
(c) Not more than 2 per centum of the funds to be made available search^fundV 
in any fiscal year for research under the authority of this Act may be 
expended, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State to assure 
that such activities are consistent with the foreign policy objectives 
of the United States, in cooperation with public or private agencies in 
foreign countries for research useful to the program in the United 
States. 
SEC. 11. The Act of July 3, 1952 (66 Stat. 328), as amended, is 
fl%\l[[ ^^s 
repealed. 
42usVi95i 
Approved July 29, 1971. 
"°*^-
Public Law 92-61 
JOINT RESOLUTION 
juiy3 0.i97i 
Designating the week of August 1, 1971, as "American Trial Lawyers Week", 
[H. J. Res. 7i4] 
Resolved hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled^ That iho, week commencing Lav^er's" w^eJk!^^ 
August 1, 1971, be designated as American Trial Lawyers Week, a 
Designation' 
week to honor the American Trial Lawyers Association on the occa- authorization. 
sion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, and to renew the commitment of 
each American to support the efforts of the American Trial Lawyers 
Association in enhancing the administration of justice for the public 
good, and to this end, we request the President of the United States 
to direct the appropriate Government officials to display the flag of 
the United States on all public buildings on August 2, 1971. 
Approved July 30, 1971. 
Public Law 92-62 
AN ACT 
August 3,1971 
To amend the peanut marketing quota provisions of the Agricniltural Adjustment 
[H. R. 6217] 
Act of 1938. 
Peanuts. 
Marketing quotai 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America m Congress assembled^ That section 358(c) 
(1) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is 
eTsVatV^^ 
amended by striking out in the last sentence thereof the language ", less 
^ "^^ ^^^^' 
the acreage to be allotted to new farms under subsection (f) of this 
section,". 
75-432 O - 72 - 13