Works of Improvement Law and Legal Definition
Pursuant to 16 USCS § 1002, [Title 16. Conservation; Chapter 18. Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention] the term works of improvement means “--any undertaking for--
(1) flood prevention (including structural and land treatment measures),
(2) the conservation, development, utilization, and disposal of water, or
(3) the conservation and proper utilization of land
in watershed or subwatershed areas not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand acres and not including any single structure which provides more than twelve thousand five hundred acre-feet of floodwater detention capacity, and more than twenty-five thousand acre-feet of total capacity. No appropriation shall be made for any plan involving an estimated Federal contribution to construction costs in excess of $ 5,000,000, or which includes any structure which provides more than twenty-five hundred acre-feet of total capacity unless such plan has been approved by resolutions adopted by the appropriate committees of the Senate and House of Representatives: Provided, That in the case of any plan involving no single structure providing more than 4,000 acre-feet of total capacity the appropriate committees shall be the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and in the case of any plan involving any single structure or more than 4,000 acre-feet of total capacity the appropriate committees shall be the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee on Public Works and Transportation of the House of Representatives, respectively. Each project must contain benefits directly related to agriculture including rural communities, that account for at least 20 percent of the total benefits of the project. A number of such subwatersheds when they are component parts of a larger watershed may be planned together when the local sponsoring organizations so desire.”
