As a part of the National Fishing Enhancement Act of l984, a national artificial reef plan was developed that gave the Army Corps of Engineers even greater leeway in evaluating artifical reef applications.  The ACOE will review permit applications with the stipulations of the National Artificial Reef Plan in mind.

     The main stipulations of the National Artificial Reef   Plan are siting, construction, management, monitoring, maintenance, and liability.

     Considered in siting are purpose, social and economic
considerations, environmental considerations, biological considerations, and specific site evaluations including substrate type, prevailing currents, wave energy levels, local fishery resources, general water quality, and a biological survey with seasonal surveys of habitat.

     Construction considerations include materials and design, function, compatibility, durability, stability, materials of opportunity, fabricted materials, incentives, alternatives, openness, surface area, interstitial space, configuration, fishability, benthic design, staging site, preinspection of material, and time of deployment.

     Management considerations include Fishery Management Plan, special management zones, objectives of reef, and calculation of increase and decrease in fish per unit area of biomass per unit area.

     Monitoring includes recording and reporting requirements,
inspection of material, inspections annually, inspections after storms, and other voluntary monitoring.

     Maintenance includes checking on scattering, buoy positioning if used, documentation of types of reefs, deployment dates, fish species present, and fishermen and diver use maintained.

     Liability requirements include risks to persons such as divers and fishermen, unauthorized locations, environmental hazards, hazard to navigation, no liability on part of US, plan and permit stage reviewed, construction stage analysis fsor immunity of donor, permitted not liable for injuries, and permit holders avoiding liability.

     In conclusion, the Army Corps of Engineers has literally hundreds of stipulations, laws, and regulations that it uses to determine whether  a permit for an artificial reef should be granted or not.  This is not without controversy. Most groups building artificial reefs would agree with the intent of the law and would support good, sound environmental principles.  There is an obvious need for some agency or group to make sure that artificial reefs are built in a sound, environmentally friendly way.  However, many of the regulations are written such that they may be interpreted differently by reasonable people.  Often times a permit may be approved by a local and state agency, but the district engineer of the ACOE will deny the permit based on an interpretation of these hundreds of regulations, laws, and stipulations.  The National Fishing Enhancement Act uses the words "properly designed, constructed, and located" to describe artificial reefs that can enhance fishery resources, both recreational and commercial.  The controversy is over what the words "properly designed, constructed, and located" mean.  At this point those words are only defined by the US Army Corps of Engineers.