Lake Ontario Land Development & Beach Protection Ass'n v. Federal Power Commission

212 F.2d 227
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit·Decided January 29, 1954·No. Nos. 11997-11999·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

PRETTYMAN, Circuit Judge.

The Federal Power Commission granted a license to the Power Authority of the State of New York, an agency of the State,1 to build and operate power facilities to be located in the International Rapids Section of the St. Lawrence River on the United States side of the International Boundary. These proposed facilities include the Long Sault Dam, located at the upstream end of Barnhart Island; that part of the powerhouse-dam extending from the downstream end of Barnhart Island to its intersection with the International Boundary in the main channel of the St. Lawrence River; and that portion of the Iroquois Dam which lies on the United States side of the Boundary.

Section 4(e) of the Federal Power Act2 provides in pertinent part that the Commission is authorized and empowered “To issue licenses to citizens of the United States, or to any association of such citizens, or to any corporation organized under the laws of the United States or any State thereof, or to any State or municipality for the purpose of constructing, operating, and maintaining dams, water conduits, reservoirs, power houses, transmission lines, or other project works necessary or convenient for the development and improvement of navigation and for the development, transmission, and utilization of power across, along, from, or in any of the streams or other bodies of water over which Congress has jurisdiction under its authority to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States * * *

The language of this section is obviously broad. Of particular interest in the present controversy are two features. (1) The section authorizes licenses not only to citizens and corporations but specifically to any “municipality”, and elsewhere3 the Act defines “municipality” to include an agency of a State. (2) The section authorizes licenses for facilities across, along, from, or in any water over which Congress has jurisdiction under the commerce clause of the Constitution. The St. Lawrence River on the United States side of the Boundary is water over which Congress has jurisdiction, and so power facilities along or in that water fall squarely within the words of the section.

The legislative history of the Act demonstrates that the Congress fully realized the licensing authority included authority over projects in international boundary streams. We need not discuss these various references in detail; they may [232] be found at the places indicated in the footnote 4 Particularly pertinent is the provision in an Act approved August 15, 1953,5 which amended Section 14 of the Federal Power Act6 and contained this provision: “ * * * except that the provisions of section 14 and section 4(b) shall continue to be applicable to any license issued for a hydroelectric development in the International Rapids section of the Saint Lawrence River.” This clause clearly shows Congress had in mind the license under consideration, which had been issued July 15, 1953.

Petitioners’ contentions rest in large part upon the erroneous premise that the Power Commission licenses projects as such. The Federal Power Act is not cast in that form. The Commission licenses facilities — dams, powerhouses, transmission lines, and other “project works” of various sorts — not projects as such. Care must be taken in any consideration of this statute lest an inadvertent shifting of the terms “project” (which is a whole development) 7 and “project works” (which are structures) 8 cause confusion.

Petitioners say then that the Act authorizes the licensing of facilities but not of parts of facilities. They say that the Commission can license a dam but not half a dam. But the argument falls when other facilities listed, along with “dams”, in the same sentence in the Act9 are considered. For example, the statute authorizes the Commission to license “power houses”. Surely the Commission is thereby authorized to license a powerhouse of which only one-half the contemplated capacity has been or is initially to be completed. Of course, the Commission may decline, and has repeatedly refused, to license a structure which is part only of a project, but our question is not whether it may refuse but whether it must. Again, the word “dam” does not necessarily mean a structure all the way across a stream although it usually has that meaning. A dam is a barrier, the dictionaries say. A structure built out into a stream, which stops the water as far as it goes, and particularly if it puts the impeded water to work, is a dam. Types of construction come easily to mind in which a barrier built only partway across the shore-to-shore span of a stream might be a useful facility. Moreover a structure in water need not be a dam to be licensed under the Act. According to the statutory definitions, “project works” include all the physical structures of a project, and “project” includes not only named types of structures, such as dams, but also “all miscellaneous structures used and useful in connection with said unit”.10 Even half a dam would be a miscellaneous structure. Petitioners say that the Act authorizes the license of facilities “across” streams. But the Act also authorizes the license of facilities “in” streams.

The answer is made clear if we assume a case in which one private concern seeks to build a whole project across an international stream, making its own arrangements with the governments involved. It would have to have licenses. Surely an- agency of the United States could issue the license for the structures in United States territory. The fact that such structures would constitute only part of the project, or only part of a completed structure, could not make Government licensing impossible.

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Lake Ontario Land Development & Beach Protection Ass'n v. Federal Power Commission, 212 F.2d 227 (D.C. Cir. 1954).

212 F.2d 227 (Lake Ontario Land Development & Beach Protection Ass'n v. Federal Power Commission) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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