43 U.S.C. § 390g–2 — Phase II of groundwater recharge demonstration program

(a) During phase II, subject to state water laws and interstate water compacts, the Bureau must design, build, and run demonstration projects in the High Plains States and other Reclamation Act States. These are the projects recommended in the report described in (c). (b) During phase II, the Secretary, through the Bureau, must contract with the states to study two things: how the costs of groundwater recharge projects could be split among the people who benefit from them, and whether using groundwater recharge in water resource projects is economically doable and legally allowed. (c) Reports to Congress: (1) Within 12 months after phase II starts, and every year after that, the Secretary must send Congress an interim report. Each report must detail findings and progress on building and running the demonstration projects from (a) and the cost study from (b). (2) Within five years after phase II starts, the Secretary must send Congress a summary report. It must include: (A) a detailed evaluation of the demonstration projects; (B) results of the cost studies; (C) specific recommendations on where operational groundwater recharge projects should be located, how big they should be, and whether they're workable, for the Bureau to build and run; and (D) an evaluation of whether these recharge projects could be folded into existing reclamation projects. (3) Besides the recommendations made under section 390g–1, the Secretary must make more recommendations for designing, building, and running demonstration projects. These new projects can be designed, built, and run the same way as under (a). (4) Each project under this section ends five years after its construction is finished. (5) At the end of phase II, the Secretary must send Congress a final report that includes, at minimum, a detailed evaluation of the projects under this section.