§2238e Additional projects for underserved community harbors

Summary

The Secretary may carry out projects to keep small or underserved harbors working for local boating, fishing, and recreation and to help restore nearby ecosystems, but only if Congress provides money set aside for this work. Projects mean one cycle of maintenance dredging and placing the dredged material. The Secretary can pick a disposal method that costs more than the cheapest option if the extra cost is judged reasonable under 33 U.S.C. 2326(d)(1). Any extra cost paid by non-Federal partners must be set under 33 U.S.C. 2213(a)–(d). Projects must be picked first based on local or regional economic benefits, environmental benefits like wetlands and shoreline protection, and other social effects such as saving lives and preserving cultural heritage. Non-Federal partners cannot be forced to do extra operation or maintenance at the placement or disposal site to get help. The federal share of any one project cannot be more than $10,000,000. These projects are additional to other operation and maintenance work done under 33 U.S.C. 2238 or section 102(a) of the Water Resources Development Act of 2020. A qualifying “underserved community harbor” is an emerging harbor, a harbor that serves island communities by passenger or freight service, or a marina or berthing area next to or reachable from a federal navigation project that has had no federal maintenance dredging funds in the current fiscal year or any of the four prior fiscal years, and that has had state or local infrastructure investments in any of those four prior years. Congress authorized $50,000,000 each year for fiscal years 2023 through 2029 for these projects, with at least 35% of each year’s money used for projects that beneficially use dredged material. No more than 10 projects under this program may be for marinas or berthing areas.