33 U.S.C. § 702: Mississippi River

Summary

The Secretary of the Army must carry out Mississippi River Commission plans adopted before March 3, 1923 or adopted later to control floods and improve the river from the Head of the Passes to the mouth of the Ohio River. Work can use hired workers or other methods and is paid as Congress provides. The commission may also fund connected waterways, including the Ohio River to the mouth of the Cache River, for projects begun by March 1, 1917 or started later. When a flood-control levee built under this authority is finished, the local levee district gets it to maintain. The United States keeps any other control rights it has over the levee.

Title 33, §702

Navigation and Navigable Waters, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

[Authorization of flood-control work.] For controlling the floods of the Mississippi River and continuing its improvement from the Head of the Passes to the mouth of the Ohio River the Secretary of the Army is empowered, authorized, and directed to carry on continuously, by hired labor or otherwise, the plans of the Mississippi River Commission, prior to March 3, 1923, or thereafter adopted, to be paid for as appropriations may from time to time be made by law. [Allotments for improvement of watercourses connected with Mississippi River.] The watercourses connected with the Mississippi River to such extent as may be necessary to exclude the flood waters from the upper limits of any delta basin, together with the Ohio River from its mouth to the mouth of the Cache River, may, in the discretion of said commission, receive allotments for improvements under way March 1, 1917, or thereafter to be undertaken. [Maintenance of levees constructed for flood control.] Upon the completion of any levee constructed for flood control under authority of this section, said levee shall be turned over to the levee district protected thereby for maintenance thereafter; but for all other purposes the United States shall retain such control over the same as it may have the right to exercise upon such completion.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Last clause of first paragraph was originally limited to appropriations made for a period of six years beginning

July 1, 1924. The portion of the first paragraph providing “and a sum not to exceed $10,000,000 annually is hereby authorized to be appropriated for that purpose, for a period of six years beginning

July 1, 1924” together with the fourth paragraph, relating to expenditures for improvements between Head of Passes and Rock Island, were from act Mar. 4, 1923, which superseded provisions on the same subjects contained in act Mar. 1, 1917, from which the rest of the section was derived, and were omitted as executed. section 2 and 3 of act Mar. 1, 1917, are classified to section 703 and 701, respectively, of this title, and section 4 of act Mar. 1, 1917, amended section 643 of this title.

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.

§702 Mississippi River