For the purpose of providing for United States reclamation projects a feasible and comprehensive plan for an economical and equitable treatment of repayment problems and for variable payments of construction charges which can be met regularly and fully from year to year during periods of decline in agricultural income and unsatisfactory conditions of agriculture as well as during periods of prosperity and good prices for agricultural products, and which will protect adequately the financial interest of the United States in said projects, obligations to pay construction charges may be revised or undertaken pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter.

In connection with any repayment contract or other form of obligation, existing on August 4, 1939, to pay construction charges, providing for repayment on the basis of a definite period, the Secretary is authorized, upon request by the water users involved or their duly authorized representatives for amendment under this section of said contract or other form of obligation, and if in the Secretary’s judgement such amendment is both practicable and in keeping with the general purpose of this subchapter, to amend said contract or other form of obligation so as to provide that the construction charges remaining unaccrued on the date of the amendment, or any later date agreed upon, shall be spread in definite annual installments on the basis of a longer definite period fixed in each case by the Secretary: Provided, That for any construction charges said longer period shall not exceed forty years, exclusive of 1931 and subsequent years to the extent of moratoria or deferments of construction charges due and payable for such years effected pursuant to Acts of Congress, from the date when the first installment of said construction charges become due and payable under the original obligation to pay said construction charges and in no event shall the unexpired part of said longer period exceed double the number of remaining years, as of the date of the amendment made pursuant to this subchapter, in which installments of said construction charges would become due and payable under said existing repayment contract or other form of obligation to pay construction charges.

The Secretary in this discretion may require, in connection with any contract entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, that the contract provide (1) that the payments for each year to be made to the United States shall become due and payable on such date or dates, not exceeding two, in each year as the Secretary determines will be substantially contemporaneous with the time or times in each year when water users receive crop returns and (2) if the contract be with an organization, that assessments or levies for the purpose of obtaining moneys sufficient to meet the organization’s payments under said contract shall be made and shall become due and payable within a certain period or periods of time prior to the date or dates on which the organization’s payments to the United States are due and payable, said period or periods of time to be agreed upon in each said contract.

The Secretary may provide such deferments of construction charges as in his judgment are necessary to prevent said requirements from resulting in inequitable pyramiding of payments of said charges.

In connection with any contract, relating to construction charges, entered into pursuant to the authority of this subchapter, the Secretary is authorized to require such provisions as he deems proper to secure the adoption of proper accounting, to protect the condition of project works and to provide for the proper use thereof, and to protect project lands against deterioration due to improper use of water. Any such contract shall require advance payment of adequate operation and maintenance charges. The Secretary is further authorized, in his discretion, to require such provisions as he deems proper to penalize delinquencies in payments of construction charges or operation and maintenance charges: Provided, That in any event there shall be penalties imposed on account of delinquencies of not less than one-half of 1 per centum per month of the delinquent charge from and after the date when such charge becomes due and payable: Provided further, That any such contract shall require that no water shall be delivered to lands or parties which are in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges, or to lands or parties which are in arrears for more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such lands or parties to the United States or to the organization in which the lands or parties are included, or to any lands or parties included in an organization which is in arrears in the advance payment of operation and maintenance or toll charges or in arrears more than twelve months in the payment of construction charges due from such organization to the United States.

The Secretary is authorized to negotiate amendments to existing contracts entered into pursuant to subsection (e) of section 485h of this title to conform said contracts to the provisions of sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title.

As used in sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title, the term “long-term contract” shall mean any contract the term of which is more than ten years.

Nothing in sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title shall be construed as affecting or intended to affect or to in any way interfere with the laws of any State relating to the control, appropriation, use, or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any vested right acquired thereunder, and the Secretary in carrying out the provisions of such sections, shall proceed in conformity with such laws, and nothing herein shall in any way affect any right of any State or of the Federal Government or of any landowner, appropriator, or user of water in, to, or from any interstate stream or the waters thereof: Provided, That the right to the use of water acquired under the provisions of such sections shall be appurtenant to the land irrigated and beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right.

Sections 485h–1 to 485h–5 of this title shall be a supplement to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto).

After the execution of a contract pursuant to the authority of section 9(d)(1) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 [43 U.S.C. 485h(d)(1)] and prior to the commencement of the development period provided thereunder, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to amend such contract to provide for irrigation blocks, or if such are already provided, to add to or modify such irrigation blocks, as he shall deem desirable to carry out the purposes of that Act.

In any repayment contract which provides for payment of construction charges by single annual installments, the Secretary may by agreement with the contracting organization amend such contract to provide for the payment of such annual installments in two parts on such dates in the calendar year as may best enable the contracting organization to meet its payments.

The Secretary is authorized to perform any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this subchapter into full force and effect.

The provisions of previous Acts of Congress not inconsistent with the provisions of this subchapter shall remain in full force and effect.

This subchapter may be cited as the “Reclamation Project Act of 1939.”