43 U.S.C. § 423h — Delivery of water to excess lands upon death of spouse

Normally, land that becomes "excess land" (as defined in section 423e) can't get water unless the owner signs a recordable contract agreeing to sell the excess. This section creates an exception. If a husband or wife dies and that death is what causes privately owned land to become excess land, and the land was already eligible to receive water from a federal reclamation project (under the Act of June 17, 1902, and its later amendments) without needing that recordable sales contract, the Secretary of the Interior can keep furnishing water to it without requiring the contract — for as long as the surviving spouse keeps owning the land. But if the surviving spouse remarries, this special protection ends, and the land goes back to being governed by the normal rules, without regard to this section.