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[] 1 1 t 1 t t 1 An Overview of the Institutional Setting 40 years, the program evolved in a number of respects.27 For the purposes of this paper, it is sufficient to summarize what became the main attributes of the federal reclamation program by 1939:za 1. Construction of projects by Reclamation has been, with but a few exceptions in more recent years, totally financed by Congressional appropriations. 2. Subject to item 6 below, construction costs allocable to irrigation purposes are repayable by irrigators, albeit without interest and over periods of 40 to 50 years (in contrast to the 1902 act's original requirement that repayment be made within ten years). Furthermore, repayment usually did not have to be initiated until after a five to ten year development period following the first delivery of project water. 3. Construction costs allocable to hydropower and municipal and industrial water supply purposes are repaid by those users with interest, but interest rates are very favorable and 40 to 50 years is allowed for repayment. 4. The construction costs of multipurpose dams and reservoirs which are allocable to fish and wildlife and recreation are non-reimbursable, although the costs of separate recreation and fish and wildlife facilities (so-called separable costs) eventually became reimbursable, at 50 and 25 percent, respectively, under current law.zs 5. Water and power users have to pay all annual operation and maintenance (O&M) costs which are allocable to reimbursable purposes such as irrigation water supplies, municipal and industrial water supplies, and hydropower. O&M costs of multiple purpose dams and reservoirs which are allocable to recreation and fish and wildlife are borne by the ~' See generally M. ROBINSON, supra note 23, at 19-59. ~ 1939 is selected because the Reclamation Projects Act of 1939, ch. 418, 53 Stat. 1187 (codified as amended at 43 U.S.C.A. §§ 485-485k (1986)) essentially brought to completion the major changes wrought in the federal reclamation program during its first 40 years. The program as it existed in 1939 was largely what applied to developments in the Colorado and Missouri River Basins during the 1940x, 50s and 60x, although further modifications in the program were still made by Congress after 1939. ~" Federal Water Project Recreation Act, 16 U.S.C.A. § 4601-13 (1993)). Separable fish and wildlife costs were originally reimbursable at 50 percent. Federal Water Project Recreation Act, Pub. L. No. 89-72, § 2, 79 Stat. 213 (1965). This was reduced to 25 percent in 1974. Act of March 7, 1974, § 77(a), 88 Stat. 33. 11