In what has been the most significant legislative victory in his first term, Rep. Joe Courtney's effort to give Connecticut's Eightmile River greater federal protection now only awaits a presidential signature.

The bill — the first substantial win Courtney has had with a personally introduced piece of legislation — was jammed into a package of similar items that passed the House Tuesday evening. Under this legislation, segments of the river that runs through Lyme, East Haddam and Salem would be designated as an official Wild and Scenic river. That would limit further development and use of lands adjacent to the Eightmile.

Courtney, D-2nd District, had originally introduced it as a standalone bill, but when the Senate passed it recently, it was packaged with similar efforts. So the House again voted on the consolidated bill, passing it after 7 p.m. on Tuesday. It now heads to the president's desk.

The national wild-and-scenic rivers program was started 40 years ago, so far giving permanent increased protection to more than 11,000 miles of 165 free-flowing U.S. rivers. They can't be dammed or used for electricity generation. The designation also increases the odds for grants and other government aid for the management of the rivers.

After years of advocacy from Connecticut environmentalists, a National Park Service study declared the Eightmile River eligible for the federal status.

"I am pleased to have successfully ushered this bill through the House, but the credit belongs to the local residents who made the conservation of our local environment a relentless priority," Courtney said in a statement on Tuesday, thanking Sen. Christopher Dodd for help on the Senate side.

Dodd called the river "a pristine environmental treasure and a precious natural habitat," and he urged President Bush to sign the bill quickly to avoid further delay in protecting the Eightmile.

Republican opponents of the measure had argued that the federal government could, in the future, use the designation as an excuse for land seizure in the river's watershed.

But the bill specifically prohibits land acquisition by any methods other than voluntary ones.