Flood Prevention Program (PL 78-534)

The Flood Control Act of December 22, 1944 authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to install watershed improvement measures to reduce flood, sedimentation, and erosion damages; further the conservation, development, utilization, and disposal of water; and the conservation and proper utilization of land.

This Act authorized eleven flood prevention watersheds. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service) and the Forest Service (FS) carry out this responsibility with assistance from other bureaus and agencies within and outside USDA.

Watershed protection and flood prevention work currently underway in small upstream watersheds all over the United States sprang from the exploratory flood prevention work authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, Public Law 534 and from the intervening 54 pilot watershed projects authorized by the Agriculture Appropriation Act of 1953.

Because the authorized flood prevention projects include relatively large areas, work plans are developed on a subwatershed basis. As of September 30, 1998, the total planning job was about 74 percent completed, with 320 work plans completed that include 24,971,385 acres.

• Key to Status Report of (P.L. 83-566) and (P.L. 78-534) Authorized Watershed Projects (Includes one P.L. 639 project) as of October 1, 2000 - MSWord Document
• FY 2000 Status of P.L. 78-534 - RTF Formatted Document

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