USACE Cancels Lake Worth Inlet FDEP Permit

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced the withdrawal of the Lake Worth Inlet, Palm Beach Harbor Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit application for the authorized deepening and widening project.

This project was recently authorized for construction by the Water Resource Reform and Development Act of 2014. The Corps is withdrawing the permit application until additional appropriations are received to begin the Preconstruction, Engineering, and Design (PED) phase. The Corps made this decision after notifying the local non-Federal sponsor, the Port of Palm Beach.

The PED phase involves transforming the authorized project from the feasibility study into detailed plans and specification for contractual procurement. Estimated to be a two-year process, additional design parameters and information are analyzed and could provide alternative mitigation and monitoring protocols for inclusion in the permit application.

“A lot of time and effort has gone into this project’s permit application so far and we feel certain additional investigations and research during the PED phase will be invaluable to the permitting process,” said project manager Laurel Reichold.

The permit application had also included extension of the ongoing maintenance dredging with beneficial reuse of beach quality sand on the downdrift beaches. As a result, the Corps is considering its options for continued maintenance dredging beyond March of 2015, when the current permit expires.

Obtaining water quality certification for construction of the deepening and widening project and associated mitigation is now pushed off until the PED phase, which Reichold says is slated for the 2016-2017 timeframe.

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Press Release, June 18, 2014