LTC 168-2007 Beach Renourishmentm MIAMIBEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # i6s-2oo~ LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor David Dermer and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
DATE: July 13, 2007
SUBJECT: Beach Renourishment
The purpose of this ETC is to provide the Mayor and City Commission with the attached
correspondence from the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the meeting that I attended in
Washington D. C. on June 27, 2007, which was described in LTC No. 150-2007.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions and/or comments.
J MG/kc
c: Bob Middaugh, Assistant City Manager
Hilda Fernandez, Assistant City Manager
Fred Beckmann, Director, Public Works Department
Kevin Crowder, Director, Economic Development & Legislative Affairs
Attachment
F:\ECON\$ALL\KEVIN\Legislative Priorities\Federal\2008 Agenda\ACE Letter LTC.doc
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. ~~ DEPARTMENT OF `THE ARMY
"~.~ JACKSONVILLE DiSTRlCT CORPS OF ENGINEERS
_ ~ " P.O. BOX 4970
~~ JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32232-0019
REPLY TO
ATTENTION OF
Programs and Project Management Division
Coastal, Navigation and Antilles Branch
Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
House of Representatives
2160 Rayburn House Office Building
:r~ashir.gton, D.C. 20515-0918
Dear Ms. Ros-Lehtinen:
I would like to thank you and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman
Schultz for allowing us to meet with both of you and your staffs
an Wednesday, June 27, 2007, to discuss some very important
Federal projects in the South Florida area. I hope we were able
to clearly articulate where we currently are with these projects
and provide you with the understanding of the processes involved
for these projects in the near future. I would like to take
this opportunity to summarize our discussions.
The Florida Keys Water Quality Improvements Project is
moving with three agreements now being forwarded this week to
our headquarters for approval. Upon approval we expect to
execute these within 30 days. Reimbursement would follow shortly
after that. Two other agreements are being worked with the
local municipalities to obtain necessary supporting information
needed. We expect to complete these and forward to our
headquarters within the next month as well.
The key issue with the Nliami River Maintenance Dredging
Prajec~ iS funding, aS yaii SC: clearly deS~.ri~/ed. ~^ve thanky'au
for your efforts in this regard and appreciate your continuing
support. Two additional options on the current contract have
been awarded which should allow the continuation of the project
into early FY-08. There is funding in the President`s budget
for FY-08 that would allow the award of at least one mare
option. With these options awarded as planned, six additional
options would remain to complete the project. In the interim,
we have been working with Dade County in an effort to allow the
advancemer:t of the non-Federal share of the project costs to
ensure maximum project execution with the funding available from
both Federal and non-Federal sources. As you know, it has been
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decided that an amendment to the Project Cooperation Agreement
would be a better vehicle to allow for the acceleration of the
non-Federal share of the project casts. We are proceeding
ahead, as Mr. Woodley suggested, to obtain Federal approval of
this document prior to the document going before the Miami Dade
Board of County Commissioners (BCC) for local approval. Our
goal is to have a federally approved document ready to go before
the BCC in their September session.
The lack of sand sources for tree Dads County Beach Erosion
Control and Hurricane Protection project has .caused considerable
delays in the renourishment of this important beach project. As
you are aware, all available domestic sources of compatible sand
for this project either have been exhausted or are not
environmentally and economically feasible. In compliance with
Congressional directives affecting acquisition of non-domestic
sources of beach material, we have prepared a Letter Report to
document that domestic sources are not available. This report
will be submitted within two weeks to the Headquarters Office of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for final review and
approval. Once approved, the report will then be sent over to
Mr. Woodley to make his determination regarding certification to
the Committees on Appropriations that domestic sources of
materials are not available. This is anticipated in October
2007. Once Congress is notified, the Corps will then be allowed
to pursue non-domestic sand sources, and subsequently proceed
with the next renourishment of the Dade County beaches. Due to
the extensive environmental procedures required, this is
currently estimated to occur in late 2009.
Commissioner Bruno Barreiro of Dade County brought up an
issue concerning erosion caused by "experimental" breakwaters
constructed near the beach in Dade County. After further
investigation, it was determined that these structures were
designed and constructed by Dade County. The only involvement
of the Corps was through a Department of the Army permit that
was required for this project feature to be built. In this
regard, it is our responsibility to ensure that the integrity of
the Federal project has not been compromised by this local
project. Therefore, we will be conducting a site inspection in
the very near future to investigate this situation in an effort
to help the county decide hcw best to proceed.
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The last project discussed was Miami Harbor and the cost
sharing agreement for the General Reevaluation Report. This
agreement has been under review at Corps Headquarters and
responses to comments have been provided. It is anticipated
that approval of this agreement will occur in September 2007.
Hopefully our meeting was beneficial to you and you have a
better understanding as to where we are with these projects. If
you have questions or need additional information, please call
me or have oLze of your staff contact ~`s. Patrice Morey, Acting
Congressional Liaison at (904) 232-2243.
Sincerely,
~. ~ ~~~
~.~ -.
i
Paul L. Grosskruger
Colonel, U.S. Army
District Commander
Copies Furnished:
Honorable Debbie Wasserman Schultz, House of Representatives,
il8 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-0920
Honorable John Paul Woodley, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the
Army (Civil Works}, Department of the Army, 108 The Army
Pentagon, Room 3E446, Washington, DC 20310-0108
Major General Don T. Riley, Director of Civil Works, 441 G.
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20314-1000
...Brigadier General ~?oseph Schreedel, L?. S. Army South Atlantic
Division, ATTN: CESAD-DE, 60 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA
30303
Mr. Thomas W. Waters, P.E., Chief, Planning and Policies
Division, CECW-MVD, 441 G. Street, IvTTnl, Washington, DC 20314-
1000
Mr. James Dalton, Chief, SAD-RIT, 441 G. Street, NW, Washington,
DC 20314-1000