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Show 245 It should be noted that this legislation has not been con- sidered to constitute an amendment of or a supplement to Reclamation Law.663 Although operations of the WPA and CCC were terminated in 1943,564 there was an increasing need for irrigation projects for expansion of agricultural production to meet the wartime food shortage.565 A further amendment of the Act permitted its application to the so-called "Great Plains Projects" for the purpose of orderly administration and accounting.666 This amendment also permitted the expenditure of appropriated funds on projects on a nonreimbursable basis, in lieu of WPA and CCC assistance theretofore available, upon a finding by the Secretary of the Interior, after consultation with the Sec- retary of Agriculture and approval by the President, that the expenditure was justifiable as an aid in the production of needed agricultural products.567 By its terms, this provision became ineffective six months after the officially declared cessa- tion of hostilities.568 After the lapse of that provision in 1947, no new projects have been undertaken under the Water Conser- vation and Utilization Act. Water Facilities Act.-We shall refer later to the details of this 1937 statute which is related to irrigation in that it is designed "to assist" in providing facilities for water storage and utilization in arid and semiarid areas.569 5as See unpublished Opinion of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, No. M-34062, dated August 9, 1945; see also Landownership Survey on Federal Reclamation Projects, Department of the Interior, p. 51 (1946). 664 As to CCC, see Act of July 2, 1942, 56 Stat. 562, 569, and Act of July 12, 1943, 57 Stat. 494, 498. As to WPA, see 45 C. F. R., ch. Ill, p. 10492 (1943 Cum. Supp.). 585 Sen. Rep. No. 365, 78th Cong., 1st sess., p. 1 (1943). 666 Act of July 16,1943, 57 Stat. 566,16 U. S. C. 590y, 590z-l, 590z-2, 590z-3; Sen. Rep. No. 365, 78th Cong., 1st sess., p. 4. (1943). Terminology adopted by the Bureau of Reclamation designates as "Great Plains Projects" those constructed under the Interior Department Appro- priation Act for 1940, and as "Water Conservation and Utilization Projects" those constructed under the Act of August 11, 1939, as amended. Bureau of Reclamation Circular Letter No. 2892, dated January 6, 1942. 887 § 5, 57 Stat. 567,16 U. S. C. 590Z-2. 568 Id.; Proclamation No. 2714, December 31, 1946, 61 Stat. 1048. 669 Act of August 28, 1937, 50 Stat. 869, as amended, 16 U. S. C. 590r-590x. See also infra. nr>. 377-379 |