this section may in his discretion give notice in writing to the owners of any such obstruction requiring them to remove it: And provided further, That the expense of removing any such obstruction as aforesaid shall be a charge against such craft and cargo; and if the owners thereof fail or refuse to reimburse the United States for such expense within thirty days after notification, then the officer or agent aforesaid may sell the craft or cargo, or any part thereof that may not have been destroyed in removal, and the proceeds of such sale shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States. Such sum of money as may be necessary to execute this section and the preceding section of this Act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be paid out on the requisition of the Secretary of War. All laws or parts of laws inconsistent with the foregoing sections ten to twenty, inclusive, of this Act are hereby repealed: Provided, That no action begun, or right of action accrued, prior to the passage of this Act shall be affected by this repeal. Provided further, That nothing contained in the said foregoing sections shall be construed as repealing, modifying, or in any manner affecting the provisions of an Act of Congress approved June twentyninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, entitled "An Act to prevent obstructive and injurious deposits within the harbor and adjacent waters of New York City, by dumping or otherwise, and to punish and prevent such offenses," as amended by section three of the river and harbor Act of August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four. 396. Speed of vessels-navigation of canals. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to prescribe such rules and regulations for the use, administration, and navigation of any or all canals and similar works of navigation that now are, or that hereafter may be, owned, operated, or maintained by the United States as in his judgment the public necessity may require; and he is also authorized to prescribe regulations to govern the speed and movement of vessels and other water craft in any public navigable channel which has been improved under authority of Congress, whenever, in his judgment, such regulations are necessary to protect such improved channels from injury, or to prevent interference with the operations of the United States in improving navigable waters or injury to any plant that may be employed in such operations. Such rules and regulations shall be posted, in conspicuous and appropriate places, for the information of the public; and every person and every corporation which shall violate such rules and regulations shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof in any district court of the United States June 13, 1902. May 19, 1896. Sec. 2. Sec. 3. Sec. 4. within whose territorial jurisdiction such offense may have been committed, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment (in the case of a natural person) not exceeding six months, in the discretion of the court. Any regulations heretofore or hereafter prescribed by the Secretary of War in pursuance of the fourth and fifth sections of the river and harbor Act of August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and any regulations hereafter prescribed in pursuance of the aforesaid section four as amended by section eleven of this Act, may be enforced as provided in section seventeen of the river and harbor Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, the provisions whereof are hereby made applicable to the said regulations. 397. Potomac River. It shall be unlawful for any owner or occupant of any wharf or dock, any master or captain of any vessel, or any person or persons to cast, throw, drop, or deposit any ballast, dirt, oyster shells, or ashes in the water in any port of the Potomac River or its tributaries in the District of Columbia, or on the shores of said river below high-water mark, unless for the purpose of making a wharf, after permission has been obtained from the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for that purpose, which wharf shall be sufficiently enclosed and secured so as to prevent injury to navigation. It shall be unlawful for any owner or occupant of any wharf or dock, any captain or master of any vessel, or any other person or persons to cast, throw, deposit, or drop in any dock or in the waters of the Potomac River or its tributaries in the District of Columbia any dead fish, fish offal, dead animals of any kind, condemned oysters in the shell, watermelons, cantaloupes, vegetables, fruits, shavings, hay, straw, ice, snow, filth, or trash of any kind whatsoever. Any person or persons violating any of the provisions. of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in the police court of the District of Columbia shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both such punishments, in the discretion of the court. Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to interfere with the work of improvement in or along the said river and harbor, under the supervision of the United States Government. PART XXXIX.-NEW YORK HARBOR. 398. New York Harbor. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to engage in fishing or dredging for shell fish 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. Any person or persons violating the foregoing provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both, such fine to be not more than two hundred and fifty dollars nor less than fifty dollars, and the imprisonment to be not more than six months nor less than thirty days, either or both united, as the judge before whom conviction is obtained shall decide. It shall be the duty of the United States Supervisor of the harbor to enforce this act, and the deputy inspectors of the said supervisor shall have authority to arrest and take into custody, with or without process, any person or persons who may commit any of the acts or offenses prohibited by this Act: Provided, That no person shall be arrested without process for any offense not committed in the presence of the supervisor or his inspector or deputy inspectors, or either of them: And further provided, That whenever any such arrest is made the person or persons so arrested shall be brought forthwith before a commissioner, judge, or court of the United States for examination of the offenses alleged against him; and such commissioner, judge, or court shall proceed in respect thereto as authorized by law in case of crimes against the United States. The placing, discharging, or depositing, by any process June 29, 1888. or in any manner, of refuse, dirt, ashes, cinders, mud, sand, dredgings, sludge, acid, or any other matter of any kind, other than that flowing from streets, sewers, and passing therefrom in a liquid state, in the tidal waters of the harbor of New York, or its adjacent or tributary waters, or in those of Long Island Sound, within the limits which shall be prescribed by the supervisor of the harbor, is hereby strictly forbidden. And every such act is made a misdemeanor, and every person engaged in or who shall aid, abet, authorize, or instigate a violation of this section, shall, upon conviction, be punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, such fine to be not less than two hundred and fifty dollars nor more than two thousand five hundred dollars, and the imprisonment to be not less than thirty Sec. 2. Sec. 3. days nor more than one year, either or both united, as the judge before whom conviction is obtained shall decide, one half of said fine to be paid to the person or persons giving information which shall lead to conviction of this misde meanor. Any and every master and engineer, or person or persons acting in such capacity, respectively, on board of any boat or vessel, who shall knowingly engage in towing any scow, boat, or vessel loaded with any such prohibited matter to any point or place of deposit, or discharge in the waters of the harbor of New York, or in its adjacent, or tributary waters, or in those of Long Island Sound, or to any point or place elsewhere than within the limits defined and permitted by the supervisor of the harbor hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this act, and shall, upon conviction, be punishable as hereinbefore provided for offenses in violation of section one of this act, and shall also have his license revoked or suspended for a term to be fixed by the judge before whom tried and convicted. In all cases of receiving on board of any scows or boats such forbidden matter or substance as herein described, the owner or master, or person acting in such capacity on board of such scows or boats, before proceeding to take or tow the same to the place of deposit, shall apply for and obtain from the supervisor of the harbor appointed hereunder a permit defining the precise limits within which the discharge of such scows or boats may be made; and it shall not be lawful for the owner or master, or person acting in such capacity, of any tug or towboat to tow or move any scow or boat so loaded with such forbidden matter unti! such permit shall have been obtained; and every person violating the foregoing provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand nor less than five hundred dollars, and in addition thereto the master of any tug or towboat so offending shall have his license revoked, or suspended for a term to be fixed by the judge before whom tried and convicted. And any deviation from such dumping or discharging place specified in such permit shall be a misdemeanor, and the owner and master, or person acting in the capacity of master, of any scows or boats dumping or discharging such forbidden matter in any place other than that specified in such permit shall be liable to punishment therefor as provided in section one of the said Act of June twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; and the owner and master, or person acting in the capacity of master, of any tug or towboat towing such scows or boats shall be liable to equal punishment with the owner and master, or person acting in the capacity of master, of the scows or boats; and, further, every scowman or other employee on board of both scows and towboats shall be deemed to have knowledge of the place of dumping specified in such permit, and the owners and masters, or persons acting in the capacity of masters, shall be liable to punishment, as aforesaid, for any unlawful dumping, within the meaning of this Act or of the said Act of June twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, which may be caused by the negligence or ignorance of such scowman or other employee; and, further, neither defect in machinery nor avoidable accidents to scows or towboats, nor unfavorable weather, nor improper handling or moving of scows or boats of any kind whatsoever, shall operate to release the owners and masters and employees of scows and towboats from the penalties hereinbefore mentioned. Every scow or boat engaged in the transportation of dredgings, earth, sand, mud, cellar dirt, garbage, or other offensive material of any description shall have its name or number and owner's name painted in letters and numbers at least fourteen inches long on both sides of the scow or boat; these names and numbers shall be kept distinctly legible at all times, and no scow or boat not so marked shall be used to transport or dump any such material. The supervisor of the harbor of New York, designated as provided in section five of the said Act of June twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, is authorized and directed to appoint inspectors and deputy inspectors, and, for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this Act and of the Act aforesaid, and of detecting and bringing to punishment offenders against the same, the said supervisor of the harbor, and the inspectors and deputy inspectors so appointed by him, shall have power and authority: First. To arrest and take into custody, with or without process, any person or persons who may commit any of the acts or offenses prohibited by this section and by the Act of June twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eightyeight, aforesaid, or who may violate any of the provisions of the same: Provided, That no person shall be arrested without process for any offense not committed in the presence of the supervisor or his inspectors or deputy inspectors, or either of them: And provided further, That whenever any such arrest is made the person or persons so arrested shall be brought forthwith before a commissioner, judge, or court of the United States for examination of the offenses alleged against him; and such commissioner, judge, or court shall proceed in respect thereto as authorized by law in case of crimes against the United States. Second. To go on board of any scow or towboat engaged in unlawful dumping of prohibited material, or in moving the same without a permit as required in this section of this Act, and to seize and hold said boats until they are discharged by action of the commissioner, judge, or court of the United States before whom the offending persons are brought. Third. To arrest and take into custody any witness or witnesses to such unlawful dumping of prohibited_material, the said witnesses to be released under proper bonds. 14317-03-25 |