The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the public interest to provide a priority of right to appropriate water for various beneficial water uses which were initiated by the United States, or its agencies, on reserved lands prior to July 3, 1978, and which uses are for secondary purposes, other than those for which the federal reservation was created, provided that the priority of right does not impair any existing water right.

(Added by Stats. 1983, Ch. 670, Sec. 1.)