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Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73not60

§12 Port Arthur Ship Canal

Title 33 › Chapter 1— NAVIGABLE WATERS GENERALLY › Subchapter I— GENERAL PROVISIONS › § 12

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Once the Port Arthur Ship Canal, the turning basin as it was on June 19, 1906, and the artificial slip holding the lumber dock of the Port Arthur Canal and Dock Company are given to the United States free and with clear title, those waterways become public U.S. waters. They must be kept and managed under the federal laws for navigable waters. The company must also give the United States a 150-foot-wide strip of land along the canal’s west side. If the Southern Pacific Railroad’s right-of-way blocks that, enough land on the east side must be given instead to make 150 feet. Until Congress approves enlarging the canal, the company and its successors may keep using, managing, and selling or leasing that strip as before, but it remains subject to the United States’ grant. Dock and wharf charges must be fair and not higher than charges at similar Gulf of Mexico ports.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §12

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

After there shall be conveyed to the United States, free of cost, a valid title to the line of water communication between Taylors Bayou and Sabine Pass, in the State of Texas, known as the Port Arthur Ship Canal, together with a valid title to the turning basin as existing June 19, 1906, and to the artificial slip on which the lumber dock of the Port Arthur Canal and Dock Company is built, the said waterways shall thereupon become free public waters of the United States, and be subject to the laws enacted by Congress for the maintenance, preservation, protection, and regulation of navigable waters: Provided, That the company or corporation conveying title to said canal as aforesaid shall also convey to the United States, free of cost, the fee to a strip of land one hundred and fifty feet wide along the westerly margin of the canal, except that where the right of way of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company prevents the transfer of such strip of land along the westerly margin of said canal there shall be conveyed such strip on the easterly margin thereof as may be necessary to make up such one hundred and fifty feet of width, with the reservation that until Congress shall have authorized and provided for the enlargement and widening of said canal the said company or corporation, its successors or assigns, shall have the right to control, occupy, and use the said strip of land and every part thereof in the same manner and to the same extent as before the execution and delivery of the conveyance, and also the right to transfer, lease, sell, quitclaim, or otherwise dispose of said property and every part thereof, subject to the grant made to the United States. The charges for the use of said docks and wharves shall be just and reasonable and shall not be greater than charges for similar services at other ports of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification This section is from a proviso following provisions establishing an additional collection district in the State of Texas to be known as the district of Sabine; the establishment of the said district being conditioned on the making of the conveyance referred to in this section. Further provisions of the said proviso authorizing the Secretary of War to accept the said waterways as the property of the United States, and directing that the Act take effect only when the requirements of the section be fully complied with to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War, have been omitted as executed and obsolete.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 12

Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60