§ 617. — Colorado River Basin; protection and development; dam, reservoir, and incidental works; water, water power, and electrical energy; eminent domain.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 43USC617]
TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS
CHAPTER 12A--BOULDER CANYON PROJECT
SUBCHAPTER I--BOULDER CANYON PROJECT ACT
Sec. 617. Colorado River Basin; protection and development; dam,
reservoir, and incidental works; water, water power, and
electrical energy; eminent domain
For the purpose of controlling the floods, improving navigation, and
regulating the flow of the Colorado River, providing for storage and for
the delivery of the stored waters thereof for reclamation of public
lands and other beneficial uses exclusively within the United States,
and for the generation of electrical energy as a means of making the
project herein authorized a self-supporting and financially solvent
undertaking, the Secretary of the Interior subject to the terms of the
Colorado River compact hereinafter mentioned in this chapter, is
authorized to construct, operate, and maintain a dam and incidental
works in the main stream of the Colorado River at Black Canyon or
Boulder Canyon adequate to create a storage reservoir of a capacity of
not less than twenty million acre-feet of water and a main canal and
appurtenant structures located entirely within the United States
connecting the Laguna Dam, or other suitable diversion dam, which the
Secretary of the Interior is authorized to construct if deemed necessary
or advisable by him upon engineering or economic considerations, with
the Imperial and Coachella Valleys in California, the expenditures for
said main canal and appurtenant structures to be reimbursable, as
provided in the reclamation law, and shall not be paid out of revenues
derived from the sale or disposal of water power or electric energy at
the dam authorized to be constructed at said Black Canyon or Boulder
Canyon, or for water for potable purposes outside of the Imperial and
Coachella Valleys: Provided, however, That no charge shall be made for
water for the use, storage, or delivery of water for irrigation or water
for potable purposes in the Imperial or Coachella Valleys; also to
construct and equip, operate, and maintain at or near said dam, or cause
to be constructed, a complete plant and incidental structures suitable
for the fullest economic development of electrical energy from the water
discharged from said reservoir; and to acquire by proceedings in eminent
domain, or otherwise, all lands, rights-of-way, and other property
necessary for said purposes.
(Dec. 21, 1928, ch. 42, Sec. 1, 45 Stat. 1057.)
References in Text
The reclamation law, referred to in text, is defined in section 617k
of this title.
Change of Name
Act Apr. 30, 1947, ch. 46, 61 Stat. 56, restored the name Hoover Dam
to the dam on the Colorado River in Black Canyon known previously as
Boulder Dam, and provided that any law, regulation, document, or record
in which that dam is designated or referred to as Boulder Dam shall be
held to refer to that dam under and by the name of Hoover Dam.
Construction With Other Laws
Pub. L. 98-381, title I, Sec. 103(b), Aug. 17, 1984, 98 Stat. 1334,
provided that: ``Except as amended by this Act [amending sections 617a
and 617b of this title], the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (45
Stat. 1057, as amended, 43 U.S.C. 617 et seq.), as amended and
supplemented [this subchapter], shall remain in full force and effect.''
Act Aug. 4, 1939, ch. 418, Sec. 18, provided that nothing in that
act should be construed to amend the Boulder Canyon Project Act (this
subchapter). See note set out under section 485j of this title.
Gila project, Arizona, as not amending this subchapter, see section
8 of Act July 30, 1947, ch. 382, 61 Stat. 628, set out as a note under
section 613 of this title.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 617e of this title.
