Pub. L. 93-251, tit. I, sec. 54

Sec. 54. (a) This section may be cited as the “Shoreline Erosion Control Demonstration Act of 1974”. (b) The Congress finds that because of the importance and increasing interest in the coastal and estuarine zone of the United States, the deterioration of the shoreline within this zone due to erosion, the harm to water quality and marine life from shoreline erosion, the loss of recreational potential due to such erosion, the financial loss to private 88 Stat. 27and public landowners resulting from shoreline erosion, and the inability of such landowners to obtain satisfactory financial and technical assistance to combat such erosion, it is essential to develop, demonstrate, and disseminate information about low-cost means to prevent and control shoreline erosion. It is therefore the purpose of this section to authorize a program to develop and demonstrate such means to combat shoreline erosion. (c) (1) The Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, shall establish and conduct for a period of five fiscal years a national shoreline erosion control development and demonstration program. The program shall consist of planning, constructing, operating. evaluating, and demonstrating prototype shoreline erosion control devices, both engineered and vegetative. (2) The program shall be carried out in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture, particularly with respect to vegetative means of preventing and controlling shoreline erosion, and in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, private organizations, and the Shoreline Erosion Advisory Panel established pursuant to subsection (d). (3) Demonstration projects established pursuant to this section shall emphasize the development of low-cost shoreline erosion control devices located on sheltered or inland waters. Such projects shall be undertaken at no less than two sites each on the shorelines of the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, the Great Lakes, and the State of Alaska, and at locations of serious erosion along the shores of Delaware Bay, particularly at those reaches known as Pickering Beach, Kitts Hummock, Bowers, Slaughter Beach, Broadkill Beach, and Lewes in the State of Delaware. Sites selected should, to the extent possible, reflect a variety of geographical and climatic conditions. (4) Such demonstration projects may be carried out on private or public lands except that no funds appropriated for the purpose of this section may be expended for the acquisition of privately owned lands. In the case of sites located on private or non-Federal public lands, the demonstration projects shall be undertaken in cooperation with a non-Federal sponsor or sponsors who shall pay at least. 25 per centum of construction costs at each site and assume operation and maintenance costs upon completion of the project. (d) (1) No later than one hundred and twenty days after the date of enactment of this section the Chief of Engineers shall establish a Shoreline Erosion Advisory Panel. The Chief of Engineers shall appoint fifteen member’s to such Panel from among individuals who are knowledgeable with respect to various aspects of shoreline erosion, with representatives from various geographical areas, institutions of higher education, professional organizations. State and local agencies, and private organizations, except that such individuals shall not be regular full-time employees of the United States. The Panel shall meet arid organize within ninety days from the date of its establishment, and shall select a Chairman from among its members. The Panel shall then meet at least once each six months thereafter and shall expire ninety days after termination of the five-year program established pursuant to subsection (c). (2) The Panel shall— (A) advise the Chief of Engineers generally in carrying out provisions of this section: (B) recommend criteria for the selection of development and demonstration sites; (C) recommend alternative institutional, legal, and financial arrangements necessary to effect agreements with non-Federal sponsors of project sites; 88 Stat. 28 (D) make periodic reviews of the progress of the program pursuant to this section; (E) recommend means by which the knowledge obtained from the project may be made readily available to the public; and (F) perform such functions as the Chief of Engineers may designate. (3) Members of the Panel shall, while serving on business of the Panel, be entitled to receive compensation at rates fixed by the Chief of Engineers, but not in excess of the maximum rate of pay for grade GS–18, as provided in the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5 of the United States Code, including traveltime and while away from their homes or regular places of business, they may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law (5 U.S.C. 73o–2) for persons in Government service employed intermittently. (4) The Panel is authorized, without regard to the civil service laws, to engage such technical and other assistance as may be required to carry out its functions. (e) The Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, shall prepare and submit annually a program progress report, including therein contributions of the Shoreline Erosion Advisory Panel, to the Committees on Public Works of the Senate and House of Representatives. The fifth and final report shall be submitted sixty days after the fifth fiscal year of funding and shall include a comprehensive evaluation of the national shoreline erosion control development and demonstration program. (f) There is authorized to be appropriated for the first fiscal year following enactment of this section, and the succeeding four fiscal years, a total of not to exceed $8,000,000 to carry out the provisions of this section.