Procedures Needed To Ensure That Irrigation Operation and Maintenance Costs Are Recovered at a Jointly Managed Facility

GAO reviewed operations at the Harlan County, Nebraska, Dam and Reservoir to determine whether all reimbursable operating and maintenance costs are being recovered by the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.

For more than two decades, neither the Corps nor the Bureau has collected all the costs due the Federal Government from irrigators using the dam and reservoir water storage space. These unrecovered costs, which now total about $962,000, were incurred by the Corps incident to operation and maintenance of the facility. Federal law, Corps and Bureau policies, and the facility's water sales contracts between the Federal Government and the irrigators all require recovery of these costs. Since the Corps operates and maintains the facility and the Bureau administers the water sales contracts with the irrigators, both agencies are responsible for recovering the costs. However, no procedures exist to require the Corps to inform the Bureau to include these costs in its annual charges to irrigators. While such procedures will help provide for the recovery of future operating and maintenance irrigation costs, they will not effect recovery of past costs incurred and unrecovered. The Bureau and the Corps need to determine the extent to which these past costs can be recovered and take appropriate action. Since joint Corps and Bureau management of Federal water projects is fairly common in the 17 Western States, and no procedures exist on how irrigation costs are to be recovered at such facilities, the agencies have no assurance that such costs are being recovered at other jointly managed facilities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Hugh J. Wessinger Team: General Accounting Office: Community and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 275-5489