I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3170

To dispose of contaminated dredged sediments in a more environmentally

responsible manner, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 27, 1996

Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN,

and Mr. ZIMMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the

Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To dispose of contaminated dredged sediments in a more

environmentally responsible manner, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Port Revitalization Act

5 of 1996’’.
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1 SEC. 2. COST SHARING FOR LAND-BASED AND CONFINED

2 DREDGED MATERIAL DISPOSAL FACILITIES.

3 (a) TREATMENT AS GENERAL NAVIGATION FEA4 TURE.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the

5 cost of providing, after the date of enactment of this Act,

6 land-based and confined aquatic dredged material disposal

7 facilities associated with the construction, operation, and

8 maintenance of any Federal navigation project for any

9 harbor or other federally maintained waterway, including

10 the cost of diking and applying dredged material to bene11 ficial use, and other improvements necessary for the prop12 er disposal of dredged material at such facilities shall be

13 considered a general navigation feature of the project and

14 shall be subject to cost sharing as a general navigation

15 feature in accordance with section 101(a) of the Water

16 Resources Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2211(a);

17 100 Stat. 4082–4083).

18 (b) COST SHARING FOR OPERATION AND MAINTE19 NANCE.—The Federal share of the cost of operation and

20 maintenance of each disposal facility to which subsection

21 (a) applies shall be determined in accordance with section

22 101(b) of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986

23 (33 U.S.C. 2211(b); 100 Stat. 4083).

24 (c) ELIGIBLE OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

25 COSTS.—For the purposes of section 210 of the Water

26 Resources Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2238; 100
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1 Stat. 4106), eligible operation and maintenance costs shall

2 include—

3 (1) the Federal share of the costs of construct4 ing dredged material disposal facilities associated

5 with the operation and maintenance of all Federal

6 navigation projects for harbors and other federally

7 maintained waterways;

8 (2) the Federal share of the cost of operating

9 and maintaining dredged material disposal facilities

10 associated with the construction, operation, and

11 maintenance of all such navigation projects;

12 (3) the Federal share of the costs of environ13 mental dredging and disposal facilities for contami14 nated sediments which are in or which affect the

15 maintenance of such Federal navigation channels

16 and the mitigation of environmental impacts result17 ing from Federal dredging activities; and

18 (4) the Federal share for the dredging, manage19 ment and disposal of contaminated sediments, or

20 other environmental remediation in critical port and

21 harbor areas in order to facilitate commercial navi22 gation, as determined by the Secretary.

23 In selecting and carrying out projects made eligible for

24 assistance by paragraph (4), the Secretary of the Army

25 shall give preference to projects in a port area to the ex-
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1 tent that annual payments of the harbor maintenance tax

2 imposed by section 9505 of the Internal Revenue Code of

3 1986 exceed Federal expenditures made from the Harbor

4 Maintenance Trust Fund for projects carried out in such

5 port area.

6 (d) LIMITATIONS ON USE OF FUNDS.—No funds

7 comprising the Federal share of costs of construction of

8 a dredged material disposal facility for operation and

9 maintenance of Federal navigation projects for harbors

10 and other federally maintained waterways shall be ex11 pended for such construction until the Secretary of the

12 Army determines that such funds are not otherwise re13 quired to cover other eligible operation and maintenance

14 costs assigned to commercial navigation. The Secretary

15 shall assure that funds expended for construction of such

16 facilities are equitably apportioned in accordance with

17 identified regional needs.

18 (e) APPLICABILITY.—This section shall apply to the

19 construction of dredged material disposal facilities for

20 which a contract for construction or construction of usable

21 increment thereof, or the construction of the associated

22 navigation project or usable increment thereof, has not

23 been awarded on or before the date of the enactment of

24 this Act. With the consent of the non-Federal interest, the

25 Secretary of the Army shall amend project cooperative
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1 agreements in effect on the date of the enactment of this

2 Act to provide for the Federal share of project costs of

3 dredged material disposal facilities as provided in this sec4 tion.

5 (f) NO INCREASE IN NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—Noth6 ing in this section shall be construed as increasing, or re7 sulting in the increase of, the non-Federal share of the

8 costs of any dredged material disposal facility authorized

9 to be provided before the date of the enactment of this

10 Act.

11 SEC. 3. FEDERAL PARTICIPATION.

12 (a) ADDITIONAL CAPACITY.—At the request of a non13 Federal project sponsor, the Secretary of the Army may

14 provide additional capacity at a dredged material disposal

15 facility constructed by the Department of the Army be16 yond that which would be required for project purposes

17 if the non-Federal project sponsor agrees to pay, during

18 the period of construction, all costs associated with the

19 construction of the additional capacity. The non-Federal

20 project sponsor may recover the costs assigned to the addi21 tional capacity through fees assessed on 3rd parties whose

22 dredged sediments are deposited in the facility and who

23 enter into agreements with the non-Federal sponsor for

24 the use of such facility. The amount of such fees may be

25 determined by the non-Federal sponsor.
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1 (b) USE OF DISPOSAL FACILITIES.—

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the

3 Army—

4 (A) may permit the use of any dredged

5 material disposal facility under the jurisdiction

6 of, or managed by, the Department of the Army

7 by a non-Federal interest if the Secretary deter8 mines that such use will not compromise the

9 availability of the facility for project purposes;

10 and

11 (B) may impose fees to recover capital, op12 eration, and maintenance costs associated with

13 such use.

14 (2) USE OF FEES.—Notwithstanding section

15 401(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act,

16 any monies received through collection of fees under

17 this subsection shall be available to the Secretary,

18 and shall be used by the Secretary, for the operation

19 and maintenance of the disposal facility from which

20 they were collected.

21 (c) FEDERAL PARTICIPATION IN NON-FEDERAL DIS22 POSAL FACILITIES.—The Secretary of the Army is author23 ized to participate in the construction and use of dredged

24 material disposal facilities developed by non-Federal inter25 ests if such facilities are necessary to the construction or
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1 operation and maintenance of a Federal navigation

2 project, without respect to whether or not such facilities

3 could be used in environmental restoration of the applica4 ble water body. The Secretary is further authorized to pay

5 disposal fees associated with Federal use of such facilities.

6 (d) SPECIAL RULES.—Any reference in this Act to

7 a non-Federal sponsor’s obligation to provide ‘‘lands, ease8 ments, rights-of-way, relocations and dredged material

9 disposal areas,’’ shall, with respect to ‘‘dredged material

10 disposal areas,’’ be limited to the acquisition of property

11 and shall not include any costs associated with the con12 struction or preparation of such areas or any related engi13 neering, design, permitting, environmental mitigation, or

14 restoration costs. Unless otherwise specifically provided to

15 the contrary, costs involving preparation or improvement

16 of an acquired disposal area to render it usable for receipt

17 of dredged material shall be considered a part of project

18 costs and as such shall be fully subject to the applicable

19 cost-sharing formulas.

20 (e) MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES.—The Secretary of

21 the Army shall use, to the extent feasible, management

22 techniques to extend the useful life of all land-based and

23 confined aquatic dredged material disposal facilities man24 aged by the Secretary and constructed by the Secretary

25 after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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1 SEC. 4. LOWER HARBOR MAINTENANCE TAX.

2 (a) AMOUNT OF TAX.—Effective January 1, 1997,

3 section 4461(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is

4 amended to read as follows:

5 ‘‘(b) AMOUNT OF TAX.—The amount of the tax im6 posed by subsection (a) on any port use shall be an

7 amount equal to 0.085 percent of the value of the commer8 cial cargo involved.’’.

9 (b) ASSESSMENT OF TAX.—For each calendar year

10 beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act, the

11 Secretary of the Army, in consultation with the Secretary

12 of the Treasury, shall conduct an assessment of the Har13 bor Maintenance Trust Fund established by section 9505

14 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to determine the

15 advisability of a reduction or an increase in the tax on

16 port use imposed by section 4461 of such Code with the

17 objective of ensuring the maintenance of a balance in the

18 Trust Fund at a sufficient level to pay the eligible oper19 ation and maintenance costs as provided for in section

20 210(a) of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986

21 and this Act.

22 (c) REPORT; PROCESS FOR CHANGING AMOUNT OF

23 TAX.—Not later than December 31, 1997, and December

24 31 of each calendar year thereafter, the Secretary of the

25 Army shall report to Congress on the determination made

26 under subsection (b).
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1 SEC. 5. SEDIMENTS DECONTAMINATION TECHNOLOGY.

2 (a) PROJECT PURPOSE.—Section 405(a) of the

3 Water Resource Development Act of 1992 (33 U.S.C.

4 2239 note; 106 Stat. 4863) is amended by adding at the

5 end the following:

6 ‘‘(3) PROJECT PURPOSE.—The purpose of the

7 project to be carried out under this section is to pro8 vide for the development of 1 or more sediment de9 contamination technologies on a pilot scale dem10 onstrating a capacity of at least 500,000 cubic yards

11 per year.’’.

12 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—The first

13 sentence of section 405(c) of such Act is amended by in14 serting before the period at the end the following: ‘‘and

15 ending before October 1, 1996, and $10,000,000 for fiscal

16 years beginning after September 30, 1996’’.

17 (c) REPORTS.—Section 405 of such Act is amended

18 by adding at the end the following:

19 ‘‘(d) REPORTS.—Not later than September 30, 1998,

20 and September 30 of each calendar year thereafter, the

21 Administrator and the Secretary shall transmit to Con22 gress a report on the results of the project to be carried

23 out under this section, including an assessment of the

24 progress made in achieving the purpose of the project set

25 forth in subsection (a)(3).’’.
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1 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF DREDGE MATERIAL CONTAIN2 MENT FACILITY FOR PORT OF NEW YORK/

3 NEW JERSEY.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Army is au5 thorized to construct, operate, and maintain a dredged

6 material containment facility with a capacity commensu7 rate with the long-term dredged material disposal needs

8 of port facilities under the jurisdiction of the Port of New

9 York/New Jersey substantially in accordance with a final

10 report of the Chief of Engineers. The costs associated with

11 feasibility studies, design, engineering, and construction

12 shall be shared with the local sponsor in accordance with

13 the provisions of section 2 of this Act.

14 (b) ELIGIBILITY.—Notwithstanding the provisions of

15 the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of

16 1972, dredged material from the Port of New York/New

17 Jersey that is not acceptable for ocean disposal may be

18 disposed of in the facility to be constructed under this sec19 tion.

20 (c) BENEFICIAL USE.—After the facility to be con21 structed under subsection (a) has been filled to capacity

22 with dredged material, the Secretary shall maintain the

23 facility for the public benefit.

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