§ 460d–3 — Recreational User Fees

(a) No entrance or admission fees shall be collected after March 31, 1970, by any officer or employee of the United States at public recreation areas located at lakes and reservoirs under the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army. (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Secretary of the Army may establish and collect fees for the use of developed recreation sites and facilities, including campsites, swimming beaches, and boat launching ramps but excluding a site or facility which includes only a boat launch ramp and a courtesy dock. (2) The Secretary shall not establish or collect fees under this subsection for the use or provision of drinking water, wayside exhibits, roads, scenic drives, overlook sites, picnic tables, toilet facilities, surface water areas, undeveloped or lightly developed shoreland, or general visitor information. (3) The fee under this subsection for use of a site or facility (other than an overnight camping site or facility or any other site or facility at which a fee is charged for use of the site or facility as of August 10, 1993) for persons entering the site or facility by private, noncommercial vehicle transporting not more than 8 persons (including the driver) shall not exceed $3 per day per vehicle, which amount may be adjusted annually by the Secretary for changes in the Consumer Price Index of All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor. (4) The fees collected under this subsection shall be credited to the currently applicable appropriation, account, or fund of the Department of the Army as discretionary offsetting collections, and shall be available only to the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts, for the operation and maintenance of recreation sites and facilities under the jurisdiction of the Secretary, subject to the condition that not less than 80 percent of fees collected at recreation areas of a specific water resources development project shall be used at such project.