§702c Expenditures for Construction Work; Conditions Precedent; Liability for Damage From Flood Waters; Condemnation Proceedings; Floodage Rights

Summary

Federal money under sections 702a and 702g cannot be spent on building any part of a project unless the Secretary of the Army approves after the Chief of Engineers recommends it, and the State or levee district first gives promises the Secretary accepts. Those promises must say they will keep the completed flood-control works in good repair (they do not have to run certain spillway control structures or special relief levees). Maintenance normally means mowing, removing weeds, handling local drainage, and making small repairs to main river levees. They must also accept lands given under section 702d and provide, at no cost to the United States, rights-of-way for levee foundations and levees on the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the Head of Passes. The United States is not responsible for any flood damage. But if, while doing the work under sections 702a, 702b–702d, 702e–702g, 702h–702m, and 704, it becomes impossible or uneconomical to build levees on a stretch of the Mississippi (or doing so would unfairly narrow the flood channel), and lands there are flooded or damaged because levees were built on the opposite bank, the Secretary and the Chief of Engineers must start legal actions to acquire ownership of those lands or to obtain floodage rights.