576
Opinion of the Court
A
Section 10 of the RHA provides in pertinent part:
"The creation of any obstruction not affirmatively authorized by Congress, to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States is prohibited; and it shall not be lawful to build or commence the building of any . . . structures in any . . . water of the United States . . . except on plans recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of the Army; and it shall not be lawful to excavate or fill, or in any manner to alter or modify the course, location, condition, or capacity of, any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, canal, lake, harbor or refuge . . . unless the work has been recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of the Army prior to beginning the same." 33 U. S. C. § 403.
The language of this provision is quite broad. It flatly prohibits the "creation of any obstruction" to navigable capacity that Congress itself has not authorized, and it bans construction of any structure in any water of the United States "except on plans recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of the Army." Ibid. The statute itself contains no criteria by which the Secretary is to make an authorization decision; on its face, the provision appears to give the Secretary unlimited discretion to grant or deny a permit for construction of a structure such as the one at issue in this case. The Reports of the Senate and House Committees charged with making recommendations on the Act contain no hint of whether the drafters sought to vest in the Secretary the apparently unbridled authority the plain language of the statute seems to suggest. See H. R. Rep. No. 1826, 55th Cong., 3d Sess. (1899); S. Rep. No. 1686, 55th Cong., 3d Sess. (1899).
The statutory antecedents of this provision similarly offer little insight into Congress' intent. The precursors to § 10 of
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