(a) If the Secretary of the Army acting through the Chief of Engineers, finds that the proposed project in Salisbury, Maryland, to be undertaken at the locations to be declared nonnavigable under this section is in the public interest, on the basis of engineering studies to determine the location and structural stability of any bulkheading and filling and permanent pile-supported structures, in order to preserve and maintain the remaining navigable waterway and on the basis of environmental studies conducted pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 [42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.], then those portions of the South Prong of the Wicomico River in Wicomico County, State of Maryland, bounded and described as follows, are declared to be not a navigable water of the United States within the meaning of the laws of the United States, and the consent of Congress is hereby given, consistent with subsection (b) of this section, to the filling in of a part thereof or the erection of permanent pile-supported structures thereon: That portion of the South Prong of the Wicomico River in Salisbury, Maryland, bounded on the east by the west side of United States Route 13; on the west by the west side of the Mill Street Bridge; on the south by a line five feet landward from the present water’s edge at high tide extending the entire length of the South Prong from the east boundary at United States Route 13 to the west boundary at the Mill Street Bridge; and on the north by a line five feet landward from the present water’s edge at high tide extending the entire length of the South Prong from the east boundary at United States Route 13 to the west boundary at the Mill Street Bridge.

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(b) This declaration shall apply only to the portions of the areas described in subsection (a) which are bulkheaded and filled or occupied by permanent pile-supported structures. Plans for bulkheading and filling and permanent pile-supported structures shall be approved by the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers. Such bulkheaded and filled areas or areas occupied by permanent pile-supported structures shall not reduce the existing width of the Wicomico River to less than sixty feet and a minimum depth of five feet shall be maintained within such sixty-foot width of the Wicomico River. Local interests shall reimburse the Federal Government for engineering and all other costs incurred under this section.