---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 426e–2"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "426e–2"
heading: "Clarification of munition disposal authorities"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/426e-2"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Protection of Navigable Waters and of Harbor and River Improvements Generally"
  - "Subchapter I — In General"
---

# §426e–2. Clarification of munition disposal authorities

- (a) **In general—** The [Secretary](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=2) may, at full Federal expense, implement any response action the [Secretary](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=2) determines to be necessary at a site where—
  - (1) the [Secretary](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=2) has carried out a project under civil works authority of the [Secretary](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=2) that includes placing sand on a beach; and
  - (2) as a result of the project described in [paragraph (1)](#a-1), military munitions that were originally released as a result of Department of Defense activities are deposited on the beach, posing a threat to human health or the environment.
- (b) **Response action funding—** A response action described in [subsection (a)](#a) shall be reimbursed from amounts made available to the agency within the Department of Defense responsible for the original release of the munitions.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 113–121, title I, § 1027, June 10, 2014, 128 Stat. 1230; Pub. L. 114–322, title I, § 1154, Dec. 16, 2016, 130 Stat. 1663.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2016—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 114–322, § 1154(1), inserted “, at full Federal expense,” after “The Secretary may” in introductory provisions.

Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 114–322, § 1154(2), substituted “reimbursed” for “funded”.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### “Secretary” Defined

Secretary means the Secretary of the Army, see section 2 of Pub. L. 113–121, set out as a note under section 2201 of this title.