Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1138500
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 16:34:14+00:00

Document:
118 Refuse Matter.-For the most part, legislation regulating the use of navigable waters as depositories or carriers of refuse matter has been confined to preventing impediments to navi- gation. We shall examine here the principal laws involved, reserving for discussion later a recent legislative effort to deal with the subject of pollution, as it is commonly understood.214 In an 1886 prohibition against deposit of specified refuse mat- ter, Congress confined its application to New York Harbor.2*5 Two years later, Congress prohibited deposit in any manner in the tidal waters of New York Harbor and certain adjacent waters of any kind of matter "other than that flowing from streets, sewers, and passing therefrom in a liquid state."246 A line officer of the Navy, designated by the President as su- pervisor of the Harbor and acting under the direction of the Secretary of the Army, is charged with enforcement of the provisions of the Act.247 There followed shortly a prohibition of general application, when Congress included in the 1890 River and Harbor Act a provision making it unlawful to de- posit in any navigable water of the United States specified refuse matter "which shall tend to impede or obstruct navi- gation." 248 Authority was granted to the Secretary to issue permits for such deposits in places where navigation would not be obstructed. Likewise limited are the provisions in the 1899 law in force today.249 They apply to any kind of refuse matter "other than that flowing from streets and sewers and passing therefrom in a liquid state." The Act's prohibition against deposit of such matter extends not only to navigable waters, but also to any tributary from which the refuse matter may be washed into a navigable water. Similarly, it is declared unlawful to deposit 244 See infra, pp. 338-342. 245 Act of August 5, 1886, § 3, 24 Stat. 310, 329. The prohibition extended to "ballast, stone, slate, gravel, earth, slack, rubbish, wreck, filth, slabs, edgings, sawdust, slag, or cinders, or other refuse or mill-waste of any kind." 816 Act of June 29,1888, § 1, 25 Stat. 209, as amended, 33 U. S. O. 441 et seq. w § 5, 25 Stat. 210, 33 U. S. C. 451. 24B Act of September 19,1890, § 6, 26 Stat. 426, 453. See also Act of August 18,1894, § 13, 28 Stat. 338, 360. 849 Act of March 3,1899, § 13, 30 Stat. 1121, 1152, 33 U. S. C. 407.

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