OCR Text |
Show 600 general investigations, "except for such cost and expense as are incurred on behalf of specific projects," shall be charged to the Reclamation Fund and not as a part of the reimbursable construction or operation and maintenance costs.574 Price of Project Products.-After costs allocable to a par- ticular purpose have been determined, and the requirements as to their reimbursement ascertained, there remains the im- portant problem of actually effecting that reimbursement. With few exceptions, assessment of charges is the device em- ployed by statutes. Moreover, the return of project costs, al- ready discussed, is frequently measured solely by the revenues produced pursuant to rate and pricing requirements of statute. In this connection, note should be made of a difference be- tween provisions contemplating return of project costs and the corresponding provisions designed to effect repayment or return of those costs. Specifically, the cost-allocation pro- cedures specified in the 1939 Reclamation Project Act purport to identify a particular group of project beneficiaries with costs producing particular benefits.575 But shifts of the cost burden may occur in the administrative application of the pricing pro- visions of that Act, under which a portion of irrigation costs are "assigned" to be borne by other project beneficiaries.576 In short, the provisions as to return of project costs bear only a qualified relationship to the pricing provisions. As we shall shortly see, a variety of considerations in addition to the return of costs are reflected, however, in provisions gov- erning the price or charge for project products or benefits. Ability to repay is one. Still another is the value of the benefit, particularly where requirements of "local contribution" are specified. And in the case of power, statutes often seek low rates employing qualifications of the "utility-rate" concept. 874 Act of December 5,1924, § 4, subsection O, 43 Stat. 672, 704, as amended, 43 U. S. O. 377. 875 Act of August 4, 1939, § 9(a), 53 Stat. 1187, 1193, 43 U. S. 0. 485h(a). 876§§9(a), 9(c), 53 Stat. 1187, 1193, 1194, 43 U. S. O. 485h(a), 485h(c). See Average Rate and Repayment Studies for Power Systems on Bureau of Reclamation Projects, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclama- tion, pp. 1-5 (January 1950); H. Doc. No. 172, 79th Cong., 1st sess., p. 6 (1945). |