S. 860 would authorize the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to credit the Mancos Water Conservancy District for some of the work it performed on the Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Project in Colorado. Under current law, the conservancy district is required to reimburse the federal government for its share (35 percent) of the project’s total costs in 15 annual installments, without interest. The district begins to make those payments one year after it receives any funding for the project from the BOR. The conservancy district received credit toward its share of the project’s costs for expenditures that it incurred before the Congress authorized the project in March 2009.
After March 2009, the conservancy district continued to work at its own expense to advance the project and the conservancy district will not receive credit toward its share of project costs for that work. S. 860 would require the BOR to credit the district for expenditures made after March 2009. That requirement would have the effect of reducing annual payments from the district (which are recorded as reductions in direct spending). Those reductions would total less than $500,000 over the 2020-2029 period.
