Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District v. United States

40 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,746, 33 Fed. Cl. 14, 1995 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 1995 WL 107444
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 14, 1995
DocketNo. 94-779C
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 40 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,746 (Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District v. United States, 40 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,746, 33 Fed. Cl. 14, 1995 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 1995 WL 107444 (uscfc 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

MEROW, Judge.

In this litigation Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District (OTID), an entity organized under the laws of the State of Washington, seeks substantial sums from the United States stemming from its obligations under the November 28, 1979 Repayment Contract No. 0-07-10-W0242 with the Department of the Interior to operate and maintain the Oroville-Tonasket unit of the Chief Joseph Dam project, Washington. OTID seeks to recover: $31,530,000 in overrun operation and maintenance costs; $13,291,000 for remedial construction work; $85,000 for costs of removing and repairing raptured reinforced plastic mortar (RPM) pipe; $37,875 for the cost of removing hazardous flume and canal; $12,900,000 to cover obligations to the United States or a declaratory judgment of nonliability therefore; and, $42,332 for a consultant’s study.

This matter comes before the court on defendant’s motion, filed February 24, 1995, for an enlargement of time to respond to discovery and plaintiffs motion, filed February 27, 1995, for an enlargement of time to file its initial pretrial submission. Also, submissions filed by each party on February 15, 1995 concerning the application of the Contract Disputes Act (CDA), 41 U.S.C. § 601 et seq., to the contract at issue have been considered.

FACTS

The pleadings and CDA submissions of February 15, 1995 disclose the following undisputed facts.

[16]*16By the Act of October 9, 1962, (76 Stat. 761) Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate and maintain the Oroville-Tonasket unit of the Okanogan-Similkameen division, Chief Joseph Dam project, Washington. The Act also provided that the repayment period for OTID to reimburse Interior for a portion of the project construction costs, as required by the Federal reclamation laws, 43 U.S.C. § 485h, may be enlarged to fifty years. The Act provided as follows (in part):

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purpose of furnishing a new and a supplemental water supply for the irrigation of approximately eight thousand four hundred and fifty acres of land in Okanogan County, Washington, for the purpose of undertaking the rehabilitation and betterment of existing works serving a major portion of these lands and for conservation and development of fish and wildlife resources, the Secretary of Interior is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Oroville-Tonasket unit of the Okanogan-Similkameen division of the Chief Joseph Dam project, in accordance with the provisions of the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto). The principal works of the unit shall consist of: facilities to permit enlargement and utilization of Palmer Lake storage; related canal, diversion dam, pumping plants, and distribution systems; and necessary works incidental to the rehabilitation of the existing irrigation system.
Sec. 2. The basic period provided in subsection (d), section 9, of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, as amended (43 U.S.C. 485h), for repayment of the construction cost properly chargeable to any block of lands may be extended to fifty years, exclusive of any development period, from the time water is first delivered to that block. Power and energy required for irrigation pumping for the Oroville-Tonasket unit shall be made available by the Secretary from the Chief Joseph Dam powerplant and other Federal plants interconnected therewith at rates not to exceed the cost of such power and energy from the Chief Joseph Dam taking into account all costs of the dam, reservoir, and power-plant which are determined by the Secretary under the provisions of the Federal reclamation laws to be properly allocable to such irrigation pumping power and energy.

By the Act of September 28, 1976 (90 Stat. 1325), the general plan of the Oroville-Tonasket unit authorized and constructed under the Act of October 9, 1962, quoted above, was modified to provide for construction, rehabilitation, or enlargement of facilities, land drainage, and to provide fish passage and propagation in the Similkameen River. The Act provided (in part) as follows:

Sec. 201. For purposes of supplying water to approximately ten thousand acres of land and for enhancement of the fish resource of the Similkameen, Okanogan, and Columbia Rivers and the Pacific Ocean, the Secretary of the Interior (hereinafter referred to as the “Secretary”) is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the Oroville-Tonasket unit extension, Okanogan-Similkameen division, Chief Joseph Dam project, Washington, in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto). The principal works of the Oroville-Tonasket unit extension (hereinafter referred to as the project) shall consist of pumping plants, distribution systems; necessary works incidental to the rehabilitation or enlargement of portions of the existing irrigation system to be incorporated in the project; drainage works; and measures necessary to provide fish passage and propagation in the Similkameen River. Irrigation works constructed and rehabilitated by the United States under the Act of October 9, 1962 (76 Stat. 761) and which are not required as a part of the project shall be dismantled and removed with funds appropriated hereunder and title to the lands and right-of-way thereto which were conveyed to the United States shall be reconveyed to the Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District. All other irrigation [17]*17works which are a part of the Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District’s existing system and which are not required as a part of the project or that do not have potential as rearing areas for fish shall be dismantled and removed with funds appropriated hereunder.
Sec. 202. The Secretary is authorized to terminate the contract of December 26, 1964, between the United States and the Oroville-Tonasket Irrigation District and to execute new contracts for the payment of project costs, including the then unpaid obligation under the December 26, 1964, contract. Such contracts shall be entered into pursuant to section 9 of the Act of August 4, 1939 (53 Stat. 1187). The term of such contract shall be fifty years, exclusive of any development period authorized by law. The contracts for irrigation water may provide for the assessment of an account charge for each identifiable ownership receiving water from the project. Such charge, together with the acreage or acre-foot charge, shall not exceed the repayment capacity of commercial family-size farm enterprises as determined on the basis of studies by the Secretary. Project construction costs covered by contracts entered into pursuant to section 9(d) of the Act of August 4, 1939, as determined by the Secretary, and which are beyond the ability of the irrigators to repay shall be charged to and returned to the reclamation fund in accordance with the provisions of section 2 of the Act of June 14, 1966 (80 Stat. 200), as amended by section 6 of the Act of September 7, 1966 (80 Stat. 707).

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Bluebook (online)
40 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,746, 33 Fed. Cl. 14, 1995 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 1995 WL 107444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oroville-tonasket-irrigation-district-v-united-states-uscfc-1995.