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Title 33, Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-102

§647 Mississippi River Survey

Title 33 › CHAPTER 13 — MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION › § 647

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Mississippi River Commission must finish the river surveys that were underway on June 28, 1879, from the Head of the Passes to the river’s headwaters. It must also do any extra surveys, map the land, measure depths, and study water flow in the river and its tributaries needed to carry out sections 641–644, 646, and 647. When asked, the Secretary of the Army must assign officers and men from the Engineer Corps and provide ships, machines, and instruments under his control. When asked, the Secretary of Commerce must do the same from the National Ocean Survey. With the Army Secretary’s approval, the commission may hire more help and obtain boats and equipment. The commission must prepare plans to locate and deepen a permanent channel, protect riverbanks, make navigation safer, prevent floods, and help commerce, trade, and the postal service. It must send full reports and cost estimates to the Secretary of the Army for transmission to Congress. The commission must report on the jetty system, the levee system, the outlet system, and any other plans it considers necessary. It may also submit plans and cost estimates for immediate works before all surveys are finished.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §647

Navigation and Navigable Waters, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

[Detail of assistants; vessels; instruments.] It shall be the duty of the Mississippi River Commission to direct and complete such surveys of the Mississippi River, between the Head of the Passes near its mouth to its headwaters as may have been in progress June 28, 1879, and to make such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations, topographical, hydrographical, and hydrometrical, of said river and its tributaries, as may be deemed necessary by said commission to carry out the objects of sections 641 to 644, 646, and 647 of this title. And to enable said commission to complete such surveys, examinations, and investigations, the Secretary of the Army shall, when requested by said commission, detail from the Engineer Corps of the Army such officers and men as may be necessary, and shall place in the charge and for the use of said commission such vessel or vessels and such machinery and instruments as may be under his control and may be deemed necessary. And the Secretary of Commerce shall, when requested by said commission in like manner detail from the National Ocean Survey such officers and men as may be necessary, and shall place in the charge and for the use of said commission such vessel or vessels and such machinery and instruments as may be under his control and may be deemed necessary. And the said commission may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Army, employ such additional force and assistants, and provide, by purchase or otherwise, such vessels or boats and such instruments and means as may be deemed necessary. [Plans; report.] It shall be the duty of said commission to take into consideration and mature such plan or plans and estimates as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and protect the banks of the Mississippi River; improve and give safety and ease to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive floods; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, and the postal service; and when so prepared and matured, to submit to the Secretary of the Army a full and detailed report of their proceedings and actions, and of such plans, with estimates of the cost thereof, for the purposes aforesaid, to be by him transmitted to Congress: Provided, That the commission shall report in full upon the practicability, feasibility, and probable cost of the various plans known as the jetty system, the levee system, and the outlet system, as well as upon such others as they deem necessary. [Plans for immediate works.] The said commission may, prior to the completion of all the surveys and examinations contemplated by sections 641 to 644, 646, and 647 of this title, prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Army, plans, specifications, and estimates of costs for such immediate works as, in the judgment of said commission, may constitute a part of the general system of works herein contemplated, to be by him transmitted to Congress.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

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.

Transfer of Functions

“Secretary of Commerce” substituted for “Secretary of the Treasury” in the first par. pursuant to section 4 and 10 of act Feb. 14, 1903, which are classified to section 1511, 1513, 1515, and 1516 of Title 15, Commerce and Trade, and which transferred Coast and Geodetic Survey, and powers and duties pertaining thereto, from Department of the Treasury to Department of Commerce. TributariesAct Mar. 3, 1881, ch. 136, 21 Stat. 474, provided in part as follows: “It shall be the duty of said commission to take into consideration, and of the Secretary of War [now Secretary of the Army] to extend operations, under their supervision, to tributaries of the Mississippi River to the extent, and not further, that may be necessary in the judgment of said commission to the perfection of the general and permanent improvement of said Mississippi River.”

Executive Documents

Change of Name

Coast and Geodetic Survey consolidated with National Weather Bureau in 1965 to form Environmental Science Services Administration by Reorg. Plan No. 2 of 1965, eff. July 13, 1965, 30 F.R. 8819, 79 Stat. 1318. Environmental Science Services Administration abolished in 1970 and its personnel, property, records, etc., transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by Reorg. Plan No. 4 of 1970, eff. Oct. 3, 1970, 35 F.R. 15627, 84 Stat. 2090. By order of Acting Associate Administrator of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, 35 F.R. 19249, Dec. 19, 1970, Coast and Geodetic Survey redesignated National Ocean Survey. See notes set out under section 311 of Title 15, Commerce and Trade.

Transfer of Functions

Functions of all officers of Department of Commerce and functions of all officers and employees of such Department transferred, with a few exceptions, to Secretary of Commerce, with power vested in him to authorize their performance or performance of any of his functions by any of such officers, agencies, and employees, by Reorg. Plan No. 5 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1263, set out in Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 647

Title 33, Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102