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NANDR 1145-2-1 Appendix 2 
23 April 1969 
6. Definitions. 
a. Refuse. Foreign substances and pollutants other than that flowing 
from streets and sewers (sewage) and passing therefrom in a liquid state into 
the watercourse. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that oil is refuse within 
the scope of the River and Harbor Acts of 1888 and 1899 cited below. : 
b. Navigable Waters. A waterway is considered navigable if in its 
natural or improved state it affords a continued highway over which commerce 
may be carried on with other states or foreign countries in the customary 
modes in which such commerce is conducted by water. 
7. Statutory Authority. The District Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer District, 
New York, has been designated by the Secretary of the Army as Supervisor of 
New York Harbor under the provisions of the River and Harbor Act of 29 June 
1888 (33 U.S.C. 441-451), as amended 12 July 1952. (This Act was amended on 
28 August 1958 to extend the application to the harbors of Hampton Roads, 
Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. The District Engineers of U.S. Army 
Engineer Districts, Norfolk and Baltimore have been designated Supervisors 
of the respective harbors). 
a. The Act of 1888, as amended, forbids the placing, discharging, or 
depositing, by any process or in any manner, of refuse, dirt, ashes, cinders, 
mud, sand, dredgings, sludge, acid, or any other matter of any kind, other 
than sewage in a liquid state, in the tidal waters of the harbor of New York, 
its adjacent and tributary waters, and those of Long Island Sound, within the 
limits prescribed by the Supervisor of the Harbor. Under authority conferred 
by the Act of 1888, the Supervisor of the Harbor has established dumping 
grounds in the Atiantic Ocean, Hudson River, and Long Island Sound for 
disposal of certain types of material. A permit issued by the Supervisor of 
the Harbor is required for dumping material in the waterways. 
b. The River and Harbor Act of 18 August 1894 (33 U.S.C. 452) makes it 
unlawful for any person or persons to engage in fishing or dredging for 
shellfish in any of the channels leading to and from the Harbor of New York, 
or to interfere in any way with the safe navigation of those channels by ocean 
steamships and ships of deep draft. 
c. Section 13 of the River and Harbor Act of 1899 (33 U.S.C. 407), known 
as the Refuse Act, applies to all navigable waters of the United States. This 
Act prohibits the deposit or discharge from vessels or from shore of any 
kind, other than that flowing from sewers in a liquid state, into any trib- 
utary of any navigable water from which it may float or be washed into such 
Navigable water. It also prohibits the deposit of material of any kind in 
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