Section

[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 33, Volume 3]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 33CFR209.325]

[Page 156-159]

TITLE 33--NAVIGATION AND NAVIGABLE WATERS

CHAPTER II--CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, DEPARTMENT OF

DEFENSE

PART 209_ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE--Table of Contents

Sec. 209.325 Navigation lights, aids to navigation, navigation charts,

and related data policy, practices and procedure.

(a) Purpose. This regulation prescribes the policy, practice and

procedure to be used by all Corps of Engineers installations and

activities in connection with aids to navigation, chart data, and

publication of information on Civil Works activities.

(b) This regulation will be applied by all elements of the Corps of

Engineers with Civil Works responsibilities.

279).

(d) Cooperation with Coast Guard. (1) District Engineers will

consult with the Coast Guard District Commander during design of channel

and harbor improvement projects to discuss the aids to navigation

requirements and all other facets of the projects that involve Coast

Guard responsibility. Project material furnished direct to Coast Guard

Commanders will include:

(i) Information as to the authorization by Congress of a project

involving changes affecting aids, such as channel limits, breakwaters,

including a copy of the project document;

(ii) The proposed operations on such projects during the next fiscal

year, to be furnished annually on the release of the budget estimates;

(iii) Plans showing the final location of the channel limits or

structures to be furnished at the time work is undertaken.

(2) Changes in channel limits affecting navigation aids, made under

general or specific provisions of the law, should be made the subject of

a conference with the Coast Guard District Commander. He will be

promptly informed as to the approval of such changes and the probable

date of completion of the work.

(3) District Engineers will furnish direct to the various Coast

Guard District Commanders, for their immediate information, any facts

which may come to their attention in connection with their duties which

will be of benefit to the Coast Guard in maintaining its system of aids

to navigation. This should include statements as to the displacement of

or defects in any such aids to navigation.

(4) If work involving harbor or channel improvements directly

affects any existing aids to navigation or any structures of the Coast

Guard, Districts Engineers will, when practicable, give notice to the

Coast Guard District Commander sufficiently in advance to permit taking

such steps as may be deemed necessary by the Coast Guard. If the Coast

Guard District Commander specifically requests that the affected

structure be replaced, the District Engineer will inform him of the

estimated cost and will proceed with the work if so authorized by the

Chief of Engineers. On completion of the work, the

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District Engineer will promptly furnish the Coast Guard District

Commander, for settlement, an account of the expense incurred.

(e) Navigation Aids of the Corps of Engineers. (1) Whenever channel

dredging or other channel improvements are being performed, necessary

temporary markers, such as ranges and light poles, should be installed

and maintained by the District Engineer pending the installation of

permanent aids by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard desires that

information regarding aids to navigation installed or maintained by

District Engineers in connection with harbor or channel improvement be

furnished promptly. Such information is needed for inclusion in Notice

to Mariners as published by the Coast Guard, and where desirable on the

charts of the waters concerned.

(2) District Engineers will notify the Coast Guard District

Commander in every case where aids to navigation for marking works of

harbor or channel improvements are established or discontinued. Notice

should be given of such aids as may be of use or interest to general

navigation. Notice need not be given as to such buoys, lights, or fog

signals as are of temporary or unimportant character, or of importance

only to the Corps of Engineers. Omit also lights or fog signals on ferry

slips and on piers used only by certain vessels, and stakes, bushes, and

barrel buoys marking shallow and little-used channels.

(3) In placing aids to navigation in connection with harbor or

channel improvement works, District Engineers should see that they do

not conflict in character or otherwise with other aids to navigation in

the vicinity. District Engineers should confer with the Coast Guard

District Commander on this subject.

(4) The necessary blank forms for reporting information regarding

Corps of Engineers aids will be furnished upon request by the Coast

Guard District Commander.

(5) It is essential that the Coast Guard by furnished with

information for publication concerning markers installed by the Corps of

Engineers as temporary aids to navigation, for new improvements, in

advance of permanent aids, and also concerning other markers that may be

established in connection with Corps of Engineers operations that may

also serve as important aids to navigation. Care will be exercised to

see that all markers established are not misleading to general

navigation and do not interfere with aids to navigation estabished by

the Coast Guard.

(f) Colors of dredging buoys established by Corps of Engineers. (1)

In order to distinguish buoys placed and maintained by the Corps of

Engineers for dredging purposes from aids to navigation placed by the

Coast Guard, Corps buoys will be painted white with the top 2 feet

painted light green.

(2) If buoys with special markings are needed to indicate the

different sides of the navigable channel, prior arrangements will be

made with the Coast Guard District Commander having jurisdiction.

(g) Information to be furnished by the Corps of Engineers. (1)

District Engineers responsible for harbors and waterways shown on charts

of the National Ocean Survey (NOAA), will report the channel conditions

promptly, using standard tabular forms, to:

Director, Defense Mapping Agency, ATTN: Hydrographic Center, Washington,

D.C. 20390.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ATTN: National Ocean

Survey C-32, Rockville, Md. 20852.

Commandant and District Commanders, U.S. Coast Guard.

(2) Channel survey drawings furnished to the Coast Guard are to

include:

(i) Either NAD 27 or State Plane grids.

(ii) Plots of the positions of aids to navigation.

(iii) Written notations of the coordinates in NAD 27 or State Plane

Coordinates of the fixed aids to navigation found during the survey.

(3) The standard tabular forms with illustrated data follow:

(i) For channels 400 feet wide and greater (ENG Form 4020-R).

(ii) For channels 100 to 400 feet wide (ENG Form 4021-R).

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[ ---------------- Harbor, ---------------- (State)]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Project Minimum depths in channel

------------------------------ entering from seaward

-----------------------------

Mid-

Name of channel Date Left channel Right

survey Feet Miles Feet outside for half outside

width length depth quarter project quarter

feet width feet

feet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kings Island Channel...................... 3-78 300 1.14 26 24 23 26

Whitehall Channel......................... 3-78 200 1.81 26 27 26 25

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ENG FORM 4021-R (Jul 59)

(iii) For channels less than 100 feet in width, report controlling

depths only based on at least 80 percent of project width, 40 percent on

either side of centerline. (The submission of tabular forms is not

required for channels having a project depth less than 10 feet except

coastal inlets and harbors of refuge.)

(4) The tabulations of depths should be amplified by footnotes or

otherwise to show clearly and definitely the location of controlling

shoals, tendency of shoals to recur, and all other critical information

of special value and importance for safe navigation of the channel.

Reaches of channel not presently named should be identified in the

tabular form by reference to chartered aids or features, or assigned

identifying names, numbers or letters. For localized irregular project

areas where the application of the tabular form would not be practical,

the controlling depth based on a safe navigable width will be described

as well as unusual or critical conditions of shoaling.

(5) The prompt dissemination of the latest detailed information

concerning channel conditions is of utmost importance, and necessary

measures will be taken to insure that such information is reported

without delay simultaneously to the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, the

Coast Guard, the National Ocean Survey and Defense Mapping Agency. When

a dangerous shoaling is found during the progress of a survey,

information thereon will be furnished immediately to the above-mentioned

agencies, so that such information may be made available to mariners

promptly, and buoys shifted to mark the shoal. Descriptions of any

dredging or other operations in important channels in tidal waters--

either in progress and not already reported, or soon to be undertaken--

together with a statement of the work and expected duration, will also

be reported in order that Naval and other vessels may be warned to look

out for dredges and other plant, temporary markers and lights.

(6) District Engineers having charge of improvements of harbors and

waterways shown on charts of the Defense Mapping Agency or of the

National Ocean Survey will send to both offices promptly, as ascertained

for the correction of such charts, the following information:

Descriptions of changes in channel location and depth, or of

obstructions that may be discovered, with such prints and other

information as may be necessary to permit the existing charts to be

corrected to date. All maps should contain sufficient data to permit the

fixed plane or reference, bench marks, base lines, etc., to be

determined and located. The survey stations should be shown and, when no

unreasonable expenditure of time or labor is involved, the map will show

one or more triangulation station(s) of the National Ocean Survey in

such a way as to facilitate connection of old or new work. The source of

authority for the shoreline and topography should be stated on the map.

The data supplied should indicate what charts are affected.

(7) When any survey of areas covered by charts of the Defense

Mapping Agency or the National Ocean Survey is completed, a print of

each tracing will be sent direct to both the Defense Mapping Agency and

the National Ocean Survey. It is not necessary that tracings be fully

complete as to form and title when such prints are made. An informal

manuscript title marked

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``Advance Sheets'', and containing a description sufficient to identify

the locality and to identify the source of the map, will be sufficient.

(8) Information relative to the improvement of harbors and waterways

such as dredging operations, and precautions rendered necessary due to

the presence of dredging or other plant will, when considered necessary,

be brought to the attention of vessel owners or operators regularly

using the waterway. This will be done through issuing bulletins or

notices by District Engineers.

(h) Special Reports. Changes affecting navigation will be made

promptly whenever information of immediate concern to navigation becomes

known. Items of information especially desired are channel conditions as

revealed by surveys, changes in channel conditions, either by natural

causes or by dredging or other work, changes in approved projects for

improvement with statements of results expected from proposed

operations, descriptions of proposed dredging or other Federal work of

improvement such as breakwater, pier, and revetment construction or

alterations, descriptions of proposed or completed municipal or private

improvements in or affecting navigable waters. Additional items of

information desired are descriptions of wrecks, uncharted shoals, and

other obstructions to navigation and particulars as to proposed or

completed removal of same, changes in buoys or lights, erection of new,

or changes in existing bridges, new or revised Federal or local rules

and regulations for harbors and channels, and establishment or existence

of danger areas in navigable waters. Reproductions of drawings or

sketches which will be helpful in interpreting the data shall accompany

the reports. The reports will not be limited to a reference to an

accompanying drawing or sketch, but will contain a complete description

in form suitable for publication in notices to mariners and the monthly

supplements to the U.S. Coast Pilot. In this respect, the reports will

provide enough information that a single notification to navigational

interests will suffice. In the case of dredging or construction work,

the bare statement that work will commence or has commenced on a certain

date is insufficient. All additional information possible, such as

probable duration of operations and object of work, will be given--the

latter in the case of dredging being such data as the area to be covered

and the depth expected to be provided. The reports required by this

paragraph will be identified by reference to the appropriate Engineer

Manual or regulation and will be numbered consecutively by each District

during the calendar year, starting with number 1 at the beginning of

each year.

(i) Information pamphlets, maps, brochures and other material. (1)

Pub. L. 85-480, approved 2 July 1958, authorizes the Chief of Engineers

to publish information pamphlets, maps, brochures, and other material on

river and harbor, flood control, and other Civil Works activities,

including related public park and recreation facilities under his

jurisdiction, as he may deem to be of value to the general public.

(2) This Public Law authorizes the Chief of Engineers to provide for

the sale of any of the material prepared under authority of the act--and

of publications, charts, or other material prepared under his direction

pursuant to other legislative authorization or appropriation, and to

charge therefor a sum of not less than the cost of reproduction.

(3) District Engineers are authorized to publish the material

covered in paragraph 8a above, and to sell such material. Except for

material specifically prepared for free distribution to the general

public, the charges for such other published information will be not

less than the cost of its reproduction.

(4) Condition survey maps or charts, sold or otherwise distributed

to the public, showing depths will specifically state the date or dates

that the surveys were made. They shall also have the following notation

printed or stamped thereon:

``The information depicted on this map represents the results of

surveys made on the dates indicated and can only be considered as

indicating the general conditions existing at that time.''

[43 FR 19661, May 8, 1978]

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