OCR Text |
Show 206 installment to provide a ceiling of between 150 and 200%, as determined by the Secretary, of the amount of the base installment for any year.812 Furthermore, the 1939 Act directs the Secretary to investi- gate the repayment problems of existing projects where he deems a contract under the Act would not provide an economi- cally sound adjustment.313 In such cases, he may negotiate a contract providing "fair and equitable treatment of the repay- ment problems" in keeping with the purposes of the Act.814 Such negotiated contracts become effective only after approval by Congress.316 A number of such negotiated contracts have been so approved.316 Identity of Obligor.-Initially, the repayment obligation rested with the individual water user.317 It was soon evident that this method of multiple, individual water-right contracts on the various projects would prove difficult of administra- tion.318 Water-users' associations were voluntarily formed under state law for the purpose, among others, of collecting project water charges from individual members and paying them over to the Government.319 In 1914, Congress expressly authorized the Secretary to designate water-users' associations or irrigation districts to act as fiscal agents in the collection of annual payments.320 In some cases, associations undertook the additional role of guarantor of repayments.821 As we earlier noted, irrigation districts formed under state laws were usually equipped with statutory power of assessing 813 Act of April 24, 1945, § 1, 59 Stat. 75, 43 U. S. O. 485c(d), see 485f(c), 485b note following. m Act of August 4,1939, § 7(a), 53 Stat. 1187, 1192, 43 U. S. C. 485f (a). 814 Id. 815 § 7(c), 53 Stat. 1192, as amended, 43 U. S. C. 485f (c). 816 For example, see the several contracts approved by Act of May 6, 1949, 63 Stat. 62, -. WT Act of June 17, 1902, § 4, 32 Stat. 388, 389, 43 U. S. O. 419, 461. 818 Second Annual Report of the Reclamation Service, p. 31 (1903). 819 Id. pp. 31, 76; Fifteenth Annual Report of the Reclamation Service, pp. 600-«01 (1916). 820 Act of August 13, 1914, § 7, 38 Stat. 686, 688, 43 TJ. S. C. 477; see also supra, pp. 170-174. m Landownership Survey on Federal Reclamation Projects, Depart- ment of the Interior, p. 33 (1946). |