Title 33Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73

§601 Mississippi River; regulation of reservoirs at headwaters

Title 33 › Chapter CHAPTER 12— - RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS GENERALLY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER IV— - PARTICULAR WORK OR IMPROVEMENTS › § 601

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Army must make and post rules for using and managing the reservoirs at the Mississippi River headwaters. Anyone who knowingly breaks those rules can be fined up to $500 or jailed up to six months and tried in the U.S. district court where the offense happened. Each year while the reservoirs operate, the Secretary must measure the river’s flow at or near Saint Paul. The cost is paid from the annual appropriation for gauging the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §601

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Army to prescribe such rules and regulations in respect to the use and administration of the reservoirs at the headwaters of the Mississippi River as in his judgment the public interest and necessity may require; which rules and regulations shall be posted in some conspicuous place or places for the information of the public. And any person knowingly and willfully violating such rules and regulations shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $500, or imprisonment, not exceeding six months, the same to be enforced by prosecution in any district court of the United States within whose territorial jurisdiction such offense may have been committed. And the Secretary of the Army shall cause such gaugings to be made at or near Saint Paul during the annual operation of said reservoirs as shall determine accurately the discharge at that point, the cost of same to be paid out of the annual appropriation for gauging the waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is from act Aug. 11, 1888, the River and Harbor Appropriation Act of 1888. In the original text the words “said reservoirs” appeared instead of “reservoirs at the headwaters of the Mississippi river.” The provision from which this section is derived, however, followed an appropriation “for continuing operations upon the reservoirs at the headwaters of the Mississippi river.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Department of War designated Department of the Army and title of Secretary of War changed to Secretary of the Army by section 205(a) of act
July 26, 1947, ch. 343, title II, 61 Stat. 501. section 205(a) of act
July 26, 1947, was repealed by section 53 of act Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 641. section 1 of act Aug. 10, 1956, enacted “Title 10, Armed Forces” which in sections 3010 to 3013 continued Department of the Army under administrative supervision of Secretary of the Army.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 601

Title 33Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73