CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

SEC. 201. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. Congress hereby finds and declares that: (1) The Boulder Canyon Project Act (“Project Act”) was enacted to conserve the waters of the lower Colorado River for a number of public purposes, including the storage and delivery of water for reclamation of public lands and other uses exclusively within the United States. (2) The Secretary of the Interior (“Secretary”) was authorized by the Project Act to construct what is now Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the All American Canal and “to contract for the storage of water in said reservoir and for the delivery thereof at such points on the river and on said canal as may be agreed upon . . .”. (3) The Project Act provides that “no person shall have or be entitled to have the use for any purpose of the water stored as aforesaid except by contract” and in California the Secretary has entered into water delivery contracts with public agencies. (4) The Secretary’s water delivery contracts incorporate the Seven Party Agreement of August 18, 1931, under which water that is not applied to beneficial use by a California Contractor is available for use by the California Contractor with the next priority. (5) The available supply of Colorado River water in California is insufficient to meet the priorities set forth in the Seven Party Agreement. (6) The Secretary’s water delivery contracts with the California Contractors provide that the total beneficial consumptive use under the first three priorities established in the contracts shall not exceed 3.85 million acre-feet of water per year. (7) The rights of all California Contractors are defined by the Project Act, their contracts, and decisions and decrees of the United States Supreme Court. 102 STAT. 4006 (8) The Secretary has promulgated regulations pursuant to his authority under the Project Act establishing procedures to assure that deliveries of Colorado River water to each user will not exceed those reasonably required for its beneficial use. (9) The Secretary has constructed the All American Canal and delivers water to the Imperial Irrigation District and Coachella Valley Water District under water delivery contracts by which those districts are entitled to receive deliveries of water in amounts reasonably required for potable and irrigation purposes. (10) Studies conducted by the Secretary show that significant quantities of water currently delivered into the All American Canal and its Coachella Branch are lost by seepage from the canals and that such losses could be reduced or eliminated by lining these canals.