OCR Text |
Show 232 project water, any balance of irrigable land being excess.473 Such excess land is denied project water if no recordable con- tract is signed, and in the hands of a purchaser is ineligible to receive project water unless the Secretary shall have ap- proved the sale price.474 If an owner of excess land fails to designate the portion he desires to be nonexcess within 30 days after a request to do so, such designation may be made by the district, or by the Secretary if the district fails to act within a reasonable time.475 With the Secretary's permission, an owner may redesignate his nonexcess land, whereupon an equivalent acreage becomes excess.476 Control over speculation has been imposed by special statute for some projects.477 In certain instances, such control has been extended by administrative action to other projects under the Secretary's authority to make rules and regulations.478 A method; thus frequently employed is to require individual owners to pay the district or the United States 50% of any "incremental value" realized in sales of nonexcess land, to be applied to the construction-cost obligation applicable to the land.479 Because of its recency and uniqueness, legislation govern- ing the Columbia Basin Project merits note here. Re- placing the 1937 Columbia Basin Antispeculation Act, Congress in 1943 enacted the Columbia Basin Project Act, which con- 478 See, e. g., Contract of May 20, 1949, between the United States and the Orange Cove Irrigation District, Symbol No. 175r-1672, Art. 26. 474 iua. mJbtd. m See, e. g., Act of March 3, 1925, 43 Stat. 1141, 1166-1170; Act of April 9, 1938, 52 Stat. 211; Act of March 10, 1943, 57 Stat. 14. 478 Act of June 17, 1902, § 10, 32 Stat. 388, 390, as amended, 43 U. S. O. 373. See Terra v. Pinney and Owyhee Irrigation District, Circuit Court of Malheur County, Oregon, opinion dated January 27, 1937, unreported but printed in The Reclamation Era, Vol. 27, Nos. 6-7, pp. 128-130 and 150-151, respectively (June and July 1937). 479 Landowneeship Suevey on Fedebal Reclamation Pbojects, Depart- ment of the Interior, p. 48 (1946). Of. Act of May 27, 1937, §1, 50 Stat. 208, 209, providing for such a payment of 50% of "incremental value" where payment is made within one month of the sale, the percentage to be in- creased by 1% for each month's delay in payment. |