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   MIAMI RIVER COMMISSION
   DREDGING COMMITTEE MINUTES:
  Minutes of meeting 		July 24, 2002
10:00 AM
(THIS IS A PUBLIC DOCUMENT)
The Miami River Commission Dredging Working Group meeting was called to order at 10 am at United Way Ansin Building, 3250 SW 3rd Avenue,  Miami, FL.  The attendee list is attached.

 
Dick Bunnell opened the meeting and advised the group that David Miller could not make this meeting; however, Brett Bibeau was present in his place.  All attendees made self-introductions.  Dick asked Jerry Scarborough to provide a report about the Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA).  At the last meeting an error was made in stating that the agreement had already been sent out to DC and it was not.  The EIS has been in the federal register for public review and draft comments have been received.  The report is in the process of being finalized.  Ninety-one public comments have been received, mostly from resource agencies, as well as Friends of the Everglades and Tropical Audubon.  Once the final document is prepared, it must be publicly noticed for 30 days.  The Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) is being reviewed by the Corps and will hopefully be approved by the end of July.  The PCA cannot move forward to DC until the DMMP is approved.  The Corps is still waiting for the Financial Plan from Miami-Dade County, which must list how the local share of the project will be paid for.  Carlos Espinosa, Miami-Dade County stated that Roman Gastesi is working on the plan and he is currently on vacation.  The Request for Proposals (RFP) is ready but needs the PCA to be approved prior to its release.  Originally Jerry had hoped to advertise concurrent with the approval of the PCA but it was thought to be better to wait until the PCA is executed and then go out for advertisement which means there will be a 45-day slip in the schedule so now the RFP will be advertised on October 1 instead of August 15.  The PCA should be sent to DC at the end of July; it will be approved and returned to the Corps by the end of September; it must then be signed by both Miami-Dade County and by the Corps and finally the RFP will be advertised on October 1.

Nancy Case O’Bourke asked about item 18 of the Corps Water Quality Conceptual Permit.  This item states that in certain instances, depending on the pre-project mixing model and other relevant documentation, a binding agreement must be developed between the local project sponsor and the Corps for water quality mitigation.  This agreement would have to be made prior to the issuance of the permit.  Carlos Espinosa expressed his concern about this.  It is not yet clear if this agreement must be made, if it will be a cost-sharing item or if the burden of the cost will solely fall upon the County.  The County has a draft conceptual permit but they have not been issued the final conceptual permit yet.  Both the Corps and the County must be issued conceptual permits because the project is outside the federal navigable channel.  The water quality variance will be issued at the same time the individual permits are issued (not the conceptual permits).

The original County Ordinance stated that each individual riparian property owner would have to obtain a dredging permit.  The proposed amendment to the ordinance would allow the county to obtain the required permit and the riparian property owners would have to provide a letter stating no objection to the proposed dredging on their submerged property.  The second reading of the amended ordinance is now scheduled for the second meeting in September; it is an amendment to Section 24-58.2 of the County Code.  The ordinance was adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on the first reading on July 11, 2002.  Dianne Johnson has the sketches needed for City permitting of the bank-to-bank project. There is 545,000 cubic yards of sediment in the federal project and 187,000 cubic yards in the non-federal project.  Carlos Espinosa reported that TIF is the only option for funding bank-to-bank.  He is also having difficulty including tributaries in the project.  The Corps is studying flood control issues in the tributaries and a possible recommendation from this study will be to dredge the tributaries.  Mr. Espinosa stated that the only problem with this is that the Corps will not be ready to dredge the tributaries for two to three years.  He also stated that there is a high probability that the Tamiami Canal may receive a FEMA allocation for dredging.

Patricia Hanson stated that there has been a good response from most of the utilities except for Teco Gas.  They have given only some information.  Pat is waiting for additional information that they are supposed to provide by the end of this week.  Their lines are located at 22nd Ave. and at I-95 crossings.  WASD needs some additional easements so that they can straighten some lines; these are located at East Coast Fisheries, Jose Marti Park and 11th Street.

The next Dredging Working Group meeting was scheduled for August 21, 2002 at 10 am at a location to be determined and the meeting was adjourned. 

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