To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to provide water for irrigation…

Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (the Secretary) to construct, operate, and maintain a project to provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, in accordance with the final feasibility report and environmental reviews for the project and this Act.

Authorizes project construction only after the Secretary determines that: (1) the Fallbrook Public Utility District, San Diego County, and the Navy have entered into contracts to repay to the United States appropriate costs of constructing, operating, and maintaining the Project (permits the Secretary to allow satisfaction of the repayment obligation for construction costs through the payment of the share of the Navy Secretary prior to the initiation of construction); (2) the authorized California officer or agency has granted water use permits to the Bureau of Reclamation; (3) the District has agreed that it will not assert against the United States any prior right to water in excess of the quantity deliverable under this Act and will share water based on equal priority and a specified ratio; and (4) the Secretary has determined that the project has completed applicable economic, environmental, and engineering feasibility studies.

(Sec. 3) Makes the Navy Secretary responsible to pay only that portion of project costs that reflects the extent to which the Department of the Navy benefits from the project. Allows the Secretary to enter into a contract with the Navy Secretary for the impoundment, storage, treatment, and carriage of prior rights water for domestic, municipal, fish and wildlife, industrial, and other beneficial purposes using project facilities.

(Sec. 4) Permits operation of the project by the Secretary, the District, or a third party, subject to a memorandum of agreement between the two Secretaries and the District. Requires the Navy Secretary and the District to participate in the project yield on the basis of equal priority, with 60% of the project's yield allotted to the Navy Secretary and 40% allotted to the District. Sets forth provisions governing contracts for the sale and delivery of excess water.

(Sec. 5) Requires the District's general repayment obligation to be determined by the Secretary consistent with the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, with exceptions. Provides that: (1) for purposes of calculating interest and determining the time when the District's repayment obligation to the United States commences, the pumping and treatment of groundwater from the project shall be deemed equivalent to the first use of water from a water storage project; and (2) there shall be no repayment obligation for water delivered to the District under a contract for delivery of excess water.

(Sec. 6) Authorizes the Secretary to transfer operation of the project to the District or a mutually agreed upon third party. Provides that if such a transfer takes place, the District shall be entitled to an equitable credit for the costs associated with the Secretary's proportionate share of the project's operation and maintenance.

(Sec. 7) Provides that California law shall apply to the rights of the United States pertaining to water use under this Act, with exceptions.

(Sec. 8) Prohibits the project from being administered or operated in any way that would impair or deplete the quantities of water the United States would have been entitled to use under California law had the project not been built, unless otherwise agreed by the Navy Secretary.

(Sec. 9) Requires the Secretary and the Navy Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees regarding whether the conditions specified by this Act have been met and, if so, the manner in which they were met.

(Sec. 10) Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 11) Terminates the Secretary's authority to complete project construction 10 years after this Act's enactment.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov