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Show 569 The Reclamation Project Act of 1939 contains the most re- cent of several authorizations relevant here. Under its terms, the Secretary of the Interior may enter into contracts to furnish water for "municipal water supply or miscellaneous pur- poses." 40* Such a contract may not impair the efficiency of the project "for irrigation purposes." Conflicts in Project Use.-Of pervading significance to effective operation of an integrated system of water-resource projects is the problem presented where the diverse purposes for which they may be operated cannot all be fulfilled. Im- portance therefore attaches to the statutory prescription of standards governing or guiding administrative efforts to re- solve such conflicts. For example, there are times when the maximum demands for navigation, flood control, electric power, and irrigation can- not be satisfied by the same structure.410 A practical operating problem then exists as to whether reservoir operation shall be directed primarily to serving one or another of these needs.4" For such an operating problem and its possible multiple varia- tions, the law lacks a total answer. One provision of general application should first be noted. In 1944, Congress assigned to the Secretary of the Army the duty of prescribing regulations for the use of storage "allocated for flood control or navigation" at all reservoir projects con- structed wholly or in part with federal "funds provided on the basis of such purposes," and required that operation of any such project must accord with those regulations.412 But re- gardless of the possible project use for these purposes, this pro- vision does not of course govern the use of storage at Reclama- tion or other projects not constructed with "funds provided *» Act of August 4,1939, § 9(c), 53 Stat. 1187,1194, 43 U. S. O. 485h(c). 00 See, e. g., Repobt on Flood Control Opebations, Columbia Basin, 1950 Flood, Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, pp. 1-2, 4, 5 (August 1950) for a discussion of the conflicting interests in the operation of the Columbia basin dams during the 1950 flood season, and the limitation placed upon flood-control operations by the need to assure water for irrigation and for logging operations. 431 Ibid. 412 See supra, n. 199, p. 109. |