43 U.S.C. § 498 — Transfer of management and operation of works to water users generally

This section moves control of irrigation works from the government to landowners once enough of them have paid. When landowners have made the required payments for most of the irrigated land in a project, management and operation of the irrigation works passes to them. The landowners must maintain the works at their own expense. They must use a form of organization and rules that the Secretary of the Interior accepts. But there is an exception: the government keeps the title to, and the management and operation of, the reservoirs and the works needed to protect and run them. The government keeps this control until Congress decides otherwise.