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104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3152

To permit the Federal Government to provide funding for wetland creation

and improvement through the construction of upland dredge material

disposal facilities and funding for upland dredge material disposal, and

for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 22, 1996

Mr. BAKER of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to

the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To permit the Federal Government to provide funding for

wetland creation and improvement through the construction of upland dredge material disposal facilities and

funding for upland dredge material disposal, 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 ‘‘Wetland Creation and

5 Improvement Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. COST SHARING FOR UPLAND AND CONFINED

2 AQUATIC DREDGED MATERIAL DISPOSAL FA3 CILITIES.

4 (a) TREATMENT IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any

5 other provision of law, after the date of the enactment of

6 this Act, the cost of providing upland and confined aquatic

7 dredged material disposal facilities associated with the

8 construction, operation, and maintenance of all Federal

9 navigation projects for harbors and inland harbors, includ10 ing the cost of diking and the cost of applying dredged

11 material to beneficial use, and other improvements nec12 essary for the proper disposal of dredged material shall

13 be considered a general navigation feature of the project

14 and shall be subject to cost sharing as such a feature in

15 accordance with section 101(a) of the Water Resources

16 Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2211(a); 100 Stat.

17 4082–4083).

18 (b) OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE.—The Federal

19 share of the cost of operation and maintenance of each

20 disposal facility to which subsection (a) applies shall be

21 determined in accordance with section 101(b) of the Water

22 Resources Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2211(b);

23 100 Stat. 4083).

24 (c) ELIGIBLE COSTS.—For purposes of section 210

25 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (33
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1 U.S.C. 2238; 100 Stat. 4106) eligible operation and main2 tenance costs shall 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 inland harbors;

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

8 and maintaining dredged material disposal facilities

9 associated with the construction, operation, and

10 maintenance of all Federal navigation projects for

11 harbors and inland harbors;

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 Federal navigation channels and the

16 mitigation of environmental impacts resulting from

17 Federal dredging activities; and

18 (4) consistent with the cost-sharing provisions

19 of subsection (a), the Federal share for the dredg20 ing, management, and disposal of in-place contami21 nated sediments, or other environmental remediation

22 in critical port and harbor areas in order to facilitate

23 maritime commerce and navigation.

24 In selecting and carrying out projects made eligible for

25 assistance under paragraph (4), the Secretary of the Army
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1 shall give preference to port areas to the extent that an2 nual payments of the harbor maintenance fee under sec3 tion 9505 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 exceed

4 Federal expenditures made from the Harbor Maintenance

5 Trust Fund for projects in such port area.

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

7 comprising the Federal share of costs described in sub8 section (a) shall be expended until the Secretary of the

9 Army determines that such funds are not otherwise re10 quired to cover other eligible operation and maintenance

11 costs assigned to commercial navigation. The Federal

12 share for each project made eligible by subsection (c) shall

13 not exceed $25,000,000 in any fiscal year.

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

15 construction of dredged material disposal facilities for

16 which a contract for construction or usable increment

17 thereof, or the construction of the associated navigation

18 project or usable increment thereof has not been awarded

19 on or before the date of the enactment of this Act. The

20 Secretary of the Army may amend, with the consent of

21 the non-Federal interest, project cooperation agreements

22 to provide for the Federal share of project costs of dredged

23 material disposal facilities as provided in this section.

24 (f) PROTECTION OF NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—Noth25 ing in this section shall increase, or result in the increase
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1 of, the non-Federal share of the costs of any dredged ma2 terial disposal facility authorized to be provided before the

3 date of the enactment of this Act.

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