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Water Supply

Corps involvement in water supply dates back to 1853, when it began building the Washington Aqueduct, which provides water to the nation's capital city and some of its suburbs to this day.

Elsewhere in the nation, the Water Supply Act of 1958 authorized the Corps to provide additional storage in its reservoirs for municipal and industrial water supply at the request of local interests, who must agree to pay the cost. The Corps also supplies water for irrigation, under the Flood Control Act of 1944. This act provided that the Secretary of War, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, could allow use of Corps reservoirs for irrigation, provided that users agree to repay the government for the water.