REPP-CREST : HYDRO In FY2000, 500 private dams paid just $7.3 million for the privilege of using public lands�which is .07% of the estimated revenues from those dams. Studies indicate fair market value for the use of those lands could exceed several hundred million dollars. Under the current system, 12.5% of that money is deposited in the General Treasury, 50% is deposited in the Reclamation Fund, and the remaining 37.5% is paid out to states and counties where the projects are. Many question the logic of transferring revenues from all around the country to the Reclamation Fund, which gets used to develop irrigation water in the western United States.