43 U.S.C. § 512 — Release of Government liens after contract with irrigation districts

This section deals with patents and water-right certificates for land inside certain irrigation districts. Normally, when the government issues a patent or water-right certificate for land under subchapter XIV of this chapter, it can reserve a lien — a legal claim — so the United States gets paid back for building and running the irrigation works. This section changes that in specific cases. If a patent or water-right certificate was issued after May 15, 1922, for land inside an irrigation district that has contracted with the United States — where the district itself agrees to pay all the charges for building, operating, and maintaining the irrigation works — then the patent or certificate does not reserve a lien to the United States. The district's payment promise takes the place of the government's lien. If a lien was already reserved in an earlier patent or certificate issued under that same subchapter, the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to release that lien, in whatever manner or form the Secretary deems effective. The Secretary of the Interior is also empowered to release liens the United States holds under water-right applications, and to assent to releasing liens that secure repayment of money owed to the United States under water-right applications tied to stock-subscription contracts with water users' associations — but only for land that can be assessed and taxed by an irrigation district formed under state law that has contracted with the United States for that purpose. Two conditions (provisos) limit this release power. First, a lien reserved in a patent or water-right certificate cannot be released until the landowner consents in writing to let the irrigation district assess, levy, and collect taxes on the land to pay the contract debt owed to the United States. Second, before releasing any lien under this section, the Secretary of the Interior must file a written report finding that the irrigation district asking for the release is legally organized under the laws of its state, has full power to enter into the contract, and can collect the contract amount by assessing and taxing the land in the district.