Hence, federal revenues from irrigation districts were smaller then the costs of operating and maintaining the Central Valley Project. The United States Congress passed the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982, which required the price of irrigation water in all new contracts to fully cover operation and maintenance costs (GAO, 1991). In addition, a 1986 statutory requirement empowered the Secretary of Interior to adjust water prices if the rates were considered too low to allow full recovery of the appropriate share of the project’s capital repayment obligation by 2030.