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his representative may refuse delivery of water to any water user or landowner who disregards or fails to comply with the regulations of this part. The project engineer is vested with authority to execute on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior water right applications by landowners of the project on the approved departmental form of application.

§ 200.2 Irrigation season.

Water will be available for irrigation purposes from April 1 to September 30 each year. These dates may be varied as much as 15 days when weather conditions and the necessity for doing maintenance work seems to warrant doing so. § 200.3 Farm unit.

For the purpose of the rules and regulations in this part and the delivery of water, a farm unit on the Wapato project shall consist of:

(a) Eighty or more contiguous acres of land in single ownership covered by one or more water right contracts.

(b) Eighty or more contiguous acres of Indian owned land under lease to the same person or being farmed by the same Indian.

(c) A minimum of 80 contiguous acres in multiple ownership provided that such contiguous 80 acres shall be within the same 80-acre subdivision of the United States public land surveys.

(d) That in all cases where an original Indian allotment consisted of less than 80 acres such original Indian allotment whether under single or multiple ownership and/or covered by one or more water right contracts or whether under lease to the same or different lessees or whether farmed by one or more Indians, shall be treated as a farm unit.

§ 200.4 Delivery point.

(a) The project will deliver water to one point on the boundary of each farm unit on the project, except that where the cost or topography makes it impractical for the landowner to irrigate the entire irrigable area of his tract from one delivery point, the Project Engineer may establish additional delivery points if the landowner cannot, at a reasonable expense, provide for the delivery by the construction of suitable head ditches.

(b) The project will maintain canals, laterals and necessary appurtenances in proper condition to make deliveries of water at such elevation as is necessary to serve each farm unit by gravity flow.

Where portions of a farm unit lie at an elevation too high to be watered by gravity flow from the present normal elevation of water level in the canal system, no change will be made in the water level elevation of the canal system so as to place water on such land. Where such land has been included in the project, the landowner may install and operate pumping equipment at his own expense to raise the water to such included land at a point on the canal designated by the Project Engineer and in accordance with his specifications. If the landowner so installs pumping equipment and pays the project construction and maintenance charges, the project will deliver in its canal at such point of installation the same amount of water per acre for his land as the project delivers at the delivery point for other lands on the project.

§ 200.5 Method of delivery.

Water for irrigation purposes will be delivered throughout the irrigation season at the discretion of the project engineer either by the continuous flow or rotation method.

§ 200.6 Preparations; submission and approval; schedule of delivery.

Wherever the rotation method is to be followed, the water users in the rotated area shall have the right to prepare their schedule subject always to approval or modification by the project engineer. The water users must exercise the right granted in this section and submit their rotation schedule on February 15 for the following irrigation season and in the event they do not so submit their schedule the project engineer will prepare the schedule.

§ 200.7 Division of water.

The division of water in all cases shall be made or authorized by a watermaster or ditchrider and any person, who in any manner interferes with the flow of water in or from the project canal or who opens, closes or in any manner changes the position of a headgate in a project canal or lateral without specific authority to do so, will be liable to prosecution. The cutting of a canal or lateral bank for the purpose of diverting water from the canal and the placing of obstruction in a canal or lateral for the purpose of increasing or decreasing the amount of flow through a project canal headgate will be considered a violation of this section.

§ 200.8 Waste water.

In all cases waste water must be kept to a minimum consistent with good irrigation practice and the water user will be held responsible for the disposal of all waste water, coming from his fields, in such a manner that no injury is done to his or other land by flooding or “subbing." Waste water may be emptied into project canals, laterals and drain ditches at such points only as have been designated for that purpose by the project engineer. The project management shall have the right summarily to shut off water from any lands where water is being unnecessarily wasted or where the provisions of this section are being violated by the owner of such land, or other person who may be in charge of such land under authority of the owner.

§ 200.9 Right-of-way.

For use in the necessary activities and emergencies incident to the operation and maintenance of the irrigation system, there is reserved a right-of-way along all canals, laterals, sublaterals and drains, in addition to the land actually occupied by such channels and their embankments, measured from the outside limits of the embankments or channel, a strip of land of sufficient width on each side of said canals, laterals, sublaterals and drains to permit the operation of maintenance equipment, making repairs and improvements, and travel by the project ditchriders.

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No trees, buildings, hay or straw stacks, or other obstructions, are to be placed upon said reserved right-of-way by any adjacent landowners or others. Any trees, buildings, hay or straw stacks, or other obstructions of any kind whatsoever, located upon said right-of-way may be ordered removed by the project engineer, and if not removed by the person or persons placing them thereon they shall be removed under the supervision of the project engineer at his discretion, and the cost of such removal shall be added to the cost of operation and maintenance for the particular tract of land under the project belonging to the persons so placing or causing such obstructions to be placed thereon.

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lateral or drain ditch, and in such case a gate of approved type shall be installed and maintained by the property owner on each side of the canal, lateral or drain ditch of sufficient width to permit the operation of equipment, travel of ditchriders and all other necessary activities incident to the proper operation and maintenance of the project system. wire, timber or other material used in the construction of fences across a project canal, lateral or drain ditch shall be placed less than 12 inches above the maximum high water surface elevation of the canal, lateral or drain ditch. § 200.12 Structures.

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(a) All necessary headgates, checks, drops, turnouts, flumes and measuring devices will be installed and maintained by the project. Any person or corporation desiring to build a bridge or other other structures over, under, in or across a project canal, lateral or drainage ditch, shall first obtain from the project engineering a written permit to build such structures, which permit shall stipulate that it is granted, and accepted by the permittee, on the condition that the repair and maintenance of the structures shall be the duty of the permittee, or his successors, without cost to the project. The permit shall further provide that if any such structure be not regularly used for a period of one year or more the project engineer may notify the person responsible for its maintenance to remove it within a period of 90 days; and that if the structure is not removed within the time allowed, it may thereafter be removed by the project engineer, the cost of such removal to be paid by the party responsible for the maintenance of the structure.

(b) Where a new irrigation project is installed, or an existing project is extended to an area without existing roads, and the construction of roads, bridges or culverts becomes necessary, the project engineer shall investigate the possibility of liquidating all or part of the cost of such construction by securing funds from any governmental agency providing funds for such purposes, and he is authorized to negotiate, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, any necessary agreement with such governmental agency.

(c) All persons or corporations are warned against the violation of this section.

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Bills for the yearly assessments of construction and operation and maintenance charges will be issued each year to the owners of record for all tracts of land designated for inclusion in the Wapato project. Where farm units have been subdivided into tracts of less than 40 acres the Secretary of the Interior in his discretion may fix a higher operation and maintenance rate for such subdivided acreage, than the rate fixed for tracts of 40 acres or more. In the event the Secretary does fix the higher rate for such subdivided tracts the individual owners thereof may obtain for their lands the rate fixed for 40 acres or more in single ownership by joining in the execution of a contract, appointing an agent with full authority to enter into such new contract, as may be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, with the project, covering the water right for the entire area of their respective small tracts: Provided, however, Such contract must represent not less than 40 acres: And provided further, That whether such contract be for 40 or more acres of land, it must in either event represent contiguous acreages. When the owners of such lands desire to take advantage of the group contract rate herein provided for they shall execute such contract appointing their agent (the form of such contract to be first approved by the Secretary of the Interior) and have their agent execute the contract for them as provided in this part, for with the project on or before February 1, preceding any irrigation season.

CROSS REFERENCES: For regulations pertaining to construction costs, see Part 211 of this chapter. For order fixing operation and maintenance charges, see §§ 221.86-221.94 of this chapter.

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AUTHORITY: The provisions of this Part 201 issued under secs. 1, 3, 36 Stat. 270, 272, as amended; 25 U.S.C. 385.

SOURCE: The provisions of this Part 201 appear at 22 F.R. 10640, Dec. 24, 1957, unless otherwise noted.

§ 201.1 Organization.

Indian irrigation projects are in charge of a project engineer or other appointed employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is fully authorized to administer, carry out and enforce the rules and regulations in this part, either directly or

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The irrigation season for the Wind River irrigation project covers the period from May 1 to September 30th. In the event of unusual conditions in the spring, owing to construction or maintenance work on canals or laterals or when the designated opening date appears detrimental to crop production, the proper officers of the United States are authorized to advance or delay, for a period of 15 days, the beginning of the season's operation, and a corresponding change may be made for the date of closing the season, if it is to the best interests of the project or the farmers so to do. In no event, however, shall the canals be operated during any one season for a period in excess of 6 months.

§ 201.3

Domestic and stock use.

Irrigation projects are primarily built and maintained for serving land with water for the irrigation of crops during the growing season and not for supplying domestic and stock water during the winter months or nonirrigation season. § 201.4 Farm units.

For the purpose of the regulations in this part and the delivery of water, a farm unit is defined as an original allotment, homestead entry or assignment of unallotted tribal land. Assignments of 'unallotted tribal land shall be made whenever practicable to conform to existing Wind River irrigation facilities. Where an established farm unit already has more than one delivery point, service may be continued to the existing delivery points. Leases covering more than one farm unit may have water delivery at the regularly established farm unit delivery points.

§ 201.5 Delivery point.

The general rule of the project shall be one delivery point at the upper boundary of the farm unit and the project shall maintain the lateral system to that extent. In special cases where from a cost or topographic standpoint it is impracticable for the landowner or lessee to irrigate the entire irrigable area of his

tract from one delivery point, the project engineer is authorized to establish additional delivery points but in no instance shall more than one delivery point be established and maintained when the landowner or lessee can at a reasonable expense provide for delivery by the construction of suitable head ditches.

§ 201.6 Record of deliveries.

Water users who are entitled to the delivery of water shall file with the ditchrider, or other proper operation employee, 48 hours in advance of the time delivery is desired, a properly signed water request card on which is indicated the time delivery is desired, the description of the subdivision, area to be irrigated, and the turnouts to be used. Printed water request cards will be supplied by the project. Request cards are required for each irrigation, and upon completion of a delivery the water user shall acknowledge same by signing the water request card. Ditchriders are specifically prohibited from making water delivery to any water user until he (the ditchrider) receives notice from the project office that all charges have been paid and proper water request cards have been filed by the water user. Water request cards for all completed deliveries must be filed in the project office at the end of each month during the irrigation season, and he must also file a statement of all uncompleted deliveries with the estimated acreage irrigated under such requests to the end of the month.

§ 201.7 Duty of water.

Water will be delivered, subject to the provisions of the regulations in this part, on a demand basis so long as a sufficient quantity is available for project use. In case of a shortage of water, the project engineer is authorized to adopt a rotation system, either for the entire project or for individual units thereof, when, in his opinion, such action is for the best interests of the project in the apportionment to each water user of his just proportionate share of the available water supply.

§ 201.8 Water users responsible for water after delivery.

It is the duty of the Indian Irrigation Service to furnish water for beneficial irrigation use only, and it is the duty of the water user to assist in the prevention of waste, and also prevent damage to adjacent lands. Water users are responsi

le for water after it is delivered to their and, and they are required to have their eld ditches in suitable condition and of uch capacity as to permit the use of conomical heads.

201.9 Waste water.

Water users will be required to construct and maintain in good order and re>air upon their lands, such ditches as nay be necessary to catch and conduct Co some waste canal, ditch or natural drainage channel, all waste water flowing upon or from their lands. No waste water shall be allowed to flow upon a road or highway right-of-way, and no waste water will be allowed to collect within 20 feet of any canal or lateral belonging to the United States, nor shall any waste water ditches be constructed within 10 feet of any canal or lateral, except at points of intersection or crossing, and such crossings shall be located and constructed only by order and under the direction of the proper employee of the United States. Water delivery will be refused any water user during such time as he fails or refuses to comply with the provisions of this section. § 201.10

Structures.

(a) All necessary headgates, checks, drops, turnouts, flumes and measuring devices will be installed and maintained by the project. Any person or corporation desiring to build a bridge or other structures over, under, in or across a project canal, lateral or drainage ditch, shall first obtain from the project engineer a written permit to build such structures, which permit shall stipulate that it is granted, and accepted by the permittee, on the condition that the repair and maintenance of the structures shall be the duty of the permittee, or his successors, without cost to the project. The permit shall further provide that if any such structure be not regularly used for a period of one year or more the project engineer may notify the person responsible for its maintenance to remove it within a period of 90 days; and that if the structure is not removed within the time allowed, it may thereafter be removed by the project engineer, the cost of such removal to be paid by the party responsible for the maintenance of the structure.

(b) Where a new irrigation project is installed, or an existing project is extended to an area without existing roads and the construction of roads, bridges or

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culverts becomes necessary, the project engineer shall investigate the possibility of liquidating all or part of the cost of such construction by securing funds from any governmental agency providing funds for such purposes, and he is authorized to negotiate, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, any necessary agreement with such governmental agency.

(c) All persons or corporations are warned against the violation of this section.

§ 201.11 Head or service ditches.

The head or service ditches are those ditches to which delivery of water is made by the ditchrider or watermaster from canals or laterals operated and maintained by the project. Such ditches which have been or may be placed upon the project right of way are considered an encroachment, and are subject to regulation contained in § 201.12. The watermaster and ditchriders are authorized to refuse delivery of water to ditches that are not in proper condition to receive and convey it to the place of use with a minimum loss. While the water is measured at the point of delivery to ditches from canals and laterals operated and maintained by the project and the loss would be to the detriment of the user, the law provides that water must be used beneficially.

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For use in the necessary activities and emergencies incident to the operation and maintenance of the irrigation system, there is reserved a right-of-way along all canals, laterals, sublaterals and drains, in addition to the land actually occupied by such channels and their embankments, measured from the outside limits of the embankments or channel, a strip of land of sufficient width on each side of said canals, laterals, sublaterals and drains to permit the operation of maintenance equipment, making repairs and improvements, and travel by the project ditchriders.

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