LTC 145-2007 Beach Renourishment Efforts in Washington, D.C.?~ MIAMIBEACH RECerveo
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER 2OD1.lUN 26 AP9 4= 12
NO. LTC # 145-2007 LETTER TO ~~4~.~!!~$I-c~_
TO: Mayor David Dermer and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager ~~ ~~~~~~~~
DATE: June 26, 2007
SUBJECT: BEACH RENOURISHMENT EFFORTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
The purpose of this LTC is to update the Mayor and City Commission on the City's efforts to
address beach renourishment issues in Washington D.C., specifically, the `foreign source
sand' issue. Currently, two Congressional directives prohibit acquisition of non-domestic
beach sand by federally funded renourishment projects. The Army Corps of Engineers
(ACOE) has drafted a letter report to resolve this issue which is pending final approval.
On April 30, 2007, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sent a letter to the ACOE
requesting the status of the letter report for alternative sources of sand for the Miami-Dade
County Beach Erosion Control project. On May 2, 2007, Kevin Crowder and I met with
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, Senator Bill Nelson, and representatives of
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, to discuss the City's federal legislative
agenda, including the sand source issue.
During the course of the meeting with Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, she agreed to request a meeting
between the Miami-Dade congressional delegation, ACOE leadership, the City of Miami
Beach, and Miami-Dade County, to discuss this study and the length of time the ACOE's
process could take to complete the review of the report. A letter requesting this meeting from
Reps. Ros-Lehtinen and Wasserman-Schultz is attached.
This meeting requested by the City has been scheduled for this Wednesday, June 27th in
Washington, D.C. The Citywill be represented at the meeting by Kevin Crowderand myself.
During this trip, I also plan to meet with staff from Senator Nelson's office to further discuss
this issue, as a follow up to our meeting with the Senator in May.
I will continue to update you as this issue progresses. In the meantime, if you have any
questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
JMG/RCM/kc
Attachments:
June 28, 2007 Letter to John Paul Woodley, Asst. Secretary of the Army
June 5, 2007 Letter to Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen
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June 18, 2007
The Elonorable John Paul Woodley, Jr.
Assistant Secretary of the Army, Civil Works
108 Army Pentagon
Room 3E446
Washington, DC 20310-0108
llcar Mr. Secretary:
Thank you for your letter, dated June 5, 2007, on alternative sand sources for Miami. We
know that you share our concern with maintaining hurricane protection and beach erosion
projects such as those protecting the residents of South Florida.
As you state in your letter, the Corps has for some years now been working on a letter
report in order to use environmentally suitable non-domestic sand on the beaches, and we are
very concerned with the amount of time the Corps current process will take to complete acid
review the report. Given that we have now entered hurricane season we urp~e you to direct the
Further in order to kee~the delegation informed of the Corps' progress we would like to
host a meeting with the interested members of the South Florida delegation and the responsible
uniformed Commanders from the District Division and Headquarters. We suggest that the Corps
summarize the issue on sand sourcing, provide us a break down by month of the amount of effort
being spent to resolve the sand issue, identify all interested federal and non federal groups with
whom they are working, and then provide us a schedule for final resolution.
At this meeting, we would also like to discuss the status of other projects which are of
vital interest to our community, namely the Miami River maintenance dredging project, Phase III
dredging for the Port of Miami and local Everglades Restoration projects.
We realize that you are busy and understand that you may not be able to make your
schedule work this month but do request that even if you cannot meet, that the uniformed
Commanders at each of the levels in the Corps meet with us this month. If your staff will contact
our staff I am sure that we can identify a mutually agreeable day and time.
I-t closing we want to thank you for your leadership in resolving the issue of non
availability of domestic sand for our beaches and for your leadership a~ so many issues of
importance to our South Florida community. We look forward to meeting with the responsible
leaders this month.
Sincerely,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Member of Congress
Member of Congress
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QEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
CIVIL WORKS
108 ARMY PENTAGON
WASHINGTON DC 20310-9108
JUN o 5 zaat
Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
United States House of Representatives
2160 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0918
Dear Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen:
Thank you for your letter of April 30, 2007, requesting the status of alternative
sources of sand study for the Dade County Beach Erosion Control and Hurricane
Protection project. Following initial construction of the project, periodic renourishment
was conducted in order to maintain the project's authorized beach and dune features.
Domestic sources of beach fill have been exhausted during the initial construction and
subsequent renourishment cycles.
I am sure you are aware that two Congressional directives affect acquisition of
non-domestic beach fill by the Corps for this project. The first directive, contained in
Section 935 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, indicates that I am
authorized to acquire fill material from non-domestic sources if such materials are not
available from domestic sources for environmental or economic reasons. The second,
contained in the Conference Report on the Fiscal Year 1999 Energy and Water
Appropriations Act, specifies that none of the funds provided for this project shall be
used for the acquisition of non-domestic material unless I provide written certification to
the Committees on Appropriations that domestic sources of materials are not available.
The use of alternative domestic sources of beach fill, within economic hauling
distances of the project, was initially evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in
cooperation with representatives of the state of Florida, Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
Counties, and the American dredging industry. This initial evaluation identified the need
to formally document the economic and environmental viability of domestic sand
sources to sustain future renourishments. A letter report is currently under preparation
by the Jacksonville District to certify whether domestic sources of materials are
available. The report is scheduled to be transmitted to the Corps Division office in
Atlanta in June, 2007. Fallowing an appraisal by the Division Office, the report will be
forwarded to Corps Headquarters in Washington for policy review. After completion of
Printed on ® Recycled Paper
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the Gorps review, the report will be sent to my office for final action. At that time, I will
provide the Corps findings and recommendations to Congress, and mare my
determination regarding certification. '
Please feel free to contact me if I may be of further assistance.
Very truly yours,
Jahn Paul Woodley, Jr.
Assistant Secretary of the Army
(Civil Works)
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