Rivers and Harbors

Rivers and Harbors Act, 1899 Passed in 1899, the Rivers and Harbor Act directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the dumping of debris in navigable waters and adjacent lands. 

The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, also known as the Refuse Act, was the first piece of legislation directed toward tlie prevention of water pollution. It stated that ... 

The Oil Pollution Act of 1924 was the first federal statute prohibiting pollution of waters strictly by oil. As indicated earlier, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) of 1972 provided a comprehensive plan for the cleanup of waters polluted by oil spills and intentional or accidental release of oil into the water. The subsequent laws, including the Clean Water Act of 1977 and with its later amendments, provide for regulation of pollution of waters by oil spills and other forms of discharges. These legislations also incorporate certain provisions of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which was intended to prevent any obstruction to the use of navigable waters for interstate commerce. 

Sediments Soil, sand, and minerals washed from land into water, usually after rain. They pile up in reservoirs, rivers, and harbors, destroying fish and wildlife habitat, and clouding the water so that sunlight cannot reach aquatic plants. Careless farming, mining, and building activities will expose sediment materials, allowing them to wash off the land after rainfall. 

Gold has long been known in the New World, too. During a visit to Haiti, Christopher Columbus (1451—1506) found gold nuggets lying on the bottom of rivers and harbors. A Portuguese explorer in 1586,... 

In that same month, the president issued another executive order establishing a permitting system for industrial pollution discharged into streams. For this purpose, Nixon invoked the Corps of Engineers authority under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, revived a few years earlier after lying dormant since Herbert Hoover faced down the Corps in the oil pollution debates of the 1920s.23... 

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