On the recordMarch 9, 2011
I rise today to introduce legislation to remove the encumbrances from land patents for a dam project that will never be built. This will enable the current owner of the land to sell or bequeath his land more easily. Donald Smith and his family acquired two parcels of undeveloped public land in Madera County, California by patent of the United States in 1983 and 1987. These parcels, comprising 103.26 acres and 41.323 acres, respectively, are adjacent to U.S. Forest Service land. In the early 1980s, the U.S. Government anticipated that a hydroelectric power project might someday be built in the vicinity, causing all or a portion of these lands to be inundated with water. Accordingly, when it issued the 1983 patent to Mr. Smith, the Bureau of Land Management included a 'flowage easement', reserving the right of the government to flood the lands for a power dam. In the mid-1980s, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission determined that this reservation and others like it were 'non-essential', and that no dam would be built. Accordingly, no easement was included in the 1987 patent, although some believe it was erroneously omitted. Flowage easements constitute a cloud on the title to land, restricting its market value and the orderly disposition of his estate.
