Pub. L. 93-251, tit. I, sec. 68

Sec. 68. (a) The Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, is authorized to undertake the phase 1 design memorandum stage of advanced engineering and design of the project involving the Willacy-Hidalgo Floodwater Bypass, the Laguna Madre Flood-water Channel, and the North Floodway Channel in the Lower Rio Grande Basin, in Willacy, Hidalgo, and Cameron Counties, Texas, substantially in accordance with the recommendations for phase I contained in the comprehensive study and plan of development. Lower Rio Grande Basin, Texas, dated July 1969, prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board, the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, and the Texas Water Rights Commission, at an estimated Federal cost of $600,000. (b) The Secretary of the Army, in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall seek reasonable assurances that an adequate land treatment program satisfactory to the Secretary of Agriculture will be installed to provide necessary protection to the watershed lands and planned structural measures; that non-Federal entities will acquire all land rights needed in connection with the construction of the works of improvement authorized by this section; and that such entities will operate and maintain any upstream structural works of improvement on non-Federal lands. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or regulation, the draft environmental impact statement prepared on such works of improvement by the Soil Conservation Service pursuant to section 102 (2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act shall constitute the draft environmental impact statement on such works as authorized by this section, and such draft statement shall be circulated to Federal agencies and other appropriate parties at such time as the Secretary of the Army directs.