The Reclamation Act of 1902 (the Newlands Act) committed proceeds from western public-land sales to federal irrigation projects and created what became the Bureau of Reclamation. It set the terms on which water from reclaimed lands is delivered — the framework behind a century of western water litigation. Its core provisions begin at 43 U.S.C. § 391.
43 U.S.C. § 391 et seq.