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of legal proceedings. Prosecution is recommended on flagrant violations, such as 
oil spills. Action toward correcting the condition when possible is a primary 
objective. Letters of warning are issued when the violation of law is trivial, 
apparently unpremeditated, results in no material public injury, and where 
available proof will not support prosecution. 
6. Definitions. 
(a) Refuse.—Foreign substances and pollutants other than that flowing 
from streets and sewers (sewage) and passing therefrom in a iquid 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 
earried on with other States or foreign countries in the customary modes in 
which such comerce 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 (388 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 En- 
gineer Districts, Norfolk and Baltimore have been designated Supervisors of the 
respective harbors). 
(a) The Act of 1888, as amended, forbids the placing, discharging, or de- 
positing, by any process or in any maner, 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 Atlantic 
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 dump- 
ing 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 inter- 
fere in any way with the safe navigation of those channels by ocean Siehuis aos 
and ships of deep draft. 
(ec) 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 refuse 
matter of any kind, other than that flowing from sewers in a liquid state, into 
any navigable water of the United States, or into any tributary 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 any place on the bank of 
any navigable water or its tributary where the material shall be liable to be 
washed into such navigable water whereby navigation shall or may be impeded 
or obstructed. 
(d) Section 10 of the 1899 Act (33 U.S.C. 403) makes it unlawful to build 
any structure outside of established harbor lines or where no harbor lines have 
been established, or to excavate or fill, or in any manner to alter or modify the 
course, location, condition, or capacity of any navigable water of the United 
States without authorization from the Secretary of the Army (usually in form 
of permit issued by the District Engineer). 
(e) Section 15 makes it unlawful to tie up or anchor any craft in navigable 
channels in such a manner as to prevent or obstruct the passage of other craft, 
or to voluntarily or carelessly sink, or permit or cause to be sunk, any craft in 
navigable channels in such a manner as to obstruct. impede. or endanger 
navigation, 
(f) Oil Pollution Act, 1924. This act (33 U.S.C. 431, et. seq.) prohibits the 
discharge of oil from vessels into the coastal navigable waters of the United 
States. The primary enforcement of this act rests with the Federal Water Pollu- 
tion Control Administration acting under the Secretary of the Interior under 
the Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966. The Oil Pollution Act, as amended. 
requiries proof that an oil discharge was due to “gross negligence” or “willful 
