Title 33Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73

§1505 Environmental review criteria

Title 33 › Chapter CHAPTER 29— - DEEPWATER PORTS › § 1505

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must create environmental review rules for deepwater ports as soon as possible after January 3, 1975. They must follow the National Environmental Policy Act and be made with recommendations from the EPA and NOAA leaders and after talking with any other federal agencies that have authority over building or running a deepwater port. The rules must cover seven areas, including impacts on the marine environment, currents and waves, other ocean uses (like fishing and science), dangers from weather and geology and protections, land-based development, human health, and any other needed factors. The Secretary must review those rules regularly and update them when needed, using the same process used to make them. The rules must be developed at the same time and under the same procedures as the related regulations required by section 1504(a).

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §1505

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary, in accordance with the recommendations of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and after consultation with any other Federal departments and agencies having jurisdiction over any aspect of the construction or operation of a deepwater port, shall establish, as soon as practicable after January 3, 1975, environmental review criteria consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act [42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.]. Such criteria shall be used to evaluate a deepwater port as proposed in an application, including—
(1)the effect on the marine environment;
(2)the effect on oceanographic currents and wave patterns;
(3)the effect on alternate uses of the oceans and navigable waters, such as scientific study, fishing, and exploitation of other living and nonliving resources;
(4)the potential dangers to a deepwater port from waves, winds, weather, and geological conditions, and the steps which can be taken to protect against or minimize such dangers;
(5)effects of land-based developments related to deepwater port development;
(6)the effect on human health and welfare; and
(7)such other considerations as the Secretary deems necessary or appropriate.
(b)The Secretary shall periodically review and, whenever necessary, revise in the same manner as originally developed, criteria established pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.
(c)The criteria established pursuant to this section shall be developed concurrently with the regulations promulgated pursuant to section 1504(a) of this title and in accordance with that section and in accordance with the provisions of that subsection.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The National Environmental Policy Act, referred to in subsec. (a), probably means the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, Pub. L. 91–190, Jan. 1, 1970, 83 Stat. 852, which is classified generally to chapter 55 (§ 4321 et seq.) of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 4321 of Title 42 and Tables.

Amendments

2023—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 118–31, § 3514(k)(5)(A), inserted heading. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 118–31, § 3514(k)(5)(B), inserted heading. Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 118–31, § 3514(k)(5)(C), inserted heading and, in text, substituted “The criteria” for “Criteria” and “concurrently with the

Regulations

promulgated pursuant to section 1504(a) of this title and in accordance with that section” for “concurrently with the

Regulations

in subsection (a) of section 1504 of this title and in accordance with the provisions of that subsection”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 1505

Title 33Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73