UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION 'BUREAU OF RECLAMATION PROJECT FEASIBILITIES AND AUTHORIZATIONS A COMPILATION OF FINDINGS OF FOREWORD FINDINGS OF FEASIBILITY AND PROJECT AUTHORIZATIONS The criterion for authorization of Federal reclamation projects since their inception has been whether they are feasible. At the inauguration of the Federal reclamation program, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with the construction of an irrigation project if the Secretary determined that the project was practicable and that the estimated cost of construction could be returned to the United States by the water users in not exceeding 10 annual installments. Under present law (1948) a finding of feasibility approved by the Secretary and sent to the President and the Congress is sufficient to authorize the construction of a reclamation project if the Secretary finds that the proposed project has engineering feasibility and if the estimated cost, less allocations to flood control, navigation, and fish and wildlife, will probably be returned to the United States. Because of this feature, the finding of feasibility procedure is sometimes referred to as the "automatic" authorization. The original Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), vested in the Secretary authority to construct feasible projects, section 2 of the act providing SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to make examinations and surveys for, and to locate and construct, as herein provided, irrigation works for the storage, diversion, and development of waters, including artesian wells, and to report to Congress at the beginning of each regular session as to the results of such examinations and surveys, giving estimates of cost of all contemplated works, the quantity and location of the lands which can be irrigated therefrom, and all facts relative to the practicability of each irrigation project; also the cost of works in process of construction as well as of those which have been completed. Section 3 of the act made it discretionary with the Secretary as to whether a project should be undertaken or not, on the basis of whether it was practicable and advisable, the first proviso of this section reading SEC. 3. * * * Provided, That all lands entered and entries made under the homestead laws within areas so withdrawn during such withdrawal shall be subject to all the provisions, limitations, charges, terms and conditions of this act; that said surveys shall be prosecuted diligently to completion, and upon the completion thereof, and of the necessary maps, plans, and esti |