Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1138772
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 04:53:12+00:00

Document:
390 control. The 1890 River and Harbor Act prohibited the crea- tion of any obstruction, not affirmatively authorized by law, to the navigable capacity of any waters in respect of which the United States has jurisdiction.13 It also declared unlawful the building of structures in navigable waters, without the permis- sion of the Secretary of the Army.14 Sustaining the authority thus asserted by Congress, the Supreme Court in 1899 made it clear that the right to control applied not only to navigable waters, but also to any obstruction to navigable capacity, wher- ever or however done.15 And in that same year, Congress re- peated and strengthened the prohibition which it had estab- lished in the 1890 statute.16 Another early decision of the Supreme Court recognizing interrelationship of river uses merits notice here. Speaking of the right of the United States to control the use and disposal of water power from a federal navigation works, the Court said, "in such matters there can be no divided empire."1T Relationship of Forest Cover.-Having authorized the President in 1891 to establish forest reserves out of specified lands in the public domain, Congress in 1897 expressly recog- nized the role of forest cover in affecting water flow when it prohibited establishment of national forests except to improve and protect forests, "or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows," or to furnish a continuous timber 18 Act of September 19,1890, § 10, 26 Stat. 426, 454. u § 7, 26 Stat. 426, 454. 15 United States v. Bio Grande Irrigation Co., 174 U. S. 690, 708 (1899). 16 Act of March 3,1899, § 10, 30 Stat. 1121,1151, 33 U. S. O. 403. §§ 9-20 of this Act were the result of a report prepared after a study of all then-exist- ing general laws for the maintenance, protection, and preservation of the navigable waters of the United States. H. Doc. No. 293,54th Cong., 2d sess. (1897). This study had been directed by § 2 of the River and Harbor Act of June 3, 1896, 29 Stat. 202, 234. The 1899 Act provided for control over con- struction of bridges, dams, dikes, causeways, wharfs, piers, breakwaters, bulkheads, or any other structures in navigable waters; over excavations and fillings; over deposits of certain refuse matter in navigable waters; over sunken vessels and floating of logs; and over the anchoring of vessels as ob- structions to navigation. " Green Bay & Miss. Canal Co. v. Patten Paper Co., 172 U. S. 58, 80 (1898), reh. den., 173 U. S. 179 (1899). See supra, pp. 19-20.

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