Scott Mitchell opened the meeting, and all attendees made self-introductions.  Scott asked Roman Gastesi to report on the status of the Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA) from the County’s perspective since no one from the Corps was able to attend the meeting.  Roman reported that the PCA is held up in Atlanta.  Roman quoted a conversation that he had with Jerry Scarborough in which Jerry informed him that a conference call was set up for Friday, September 20, 2002 between the Washington, Atlanta and Jacksonville Corps offices.  Jerry assured Roman that he would not hang up the phone at the Friday meeting until the PCA issue was resolved.  David Miller reported that the MRC wrote to the two Florida Senators and the six House Representatives concerning the delays occurring at the Atlanta Division Office.  The Atlanta Division has had the Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in their possession since April and they have still not made any decision.  The Atlanta Division is questioning the project funding through Operation and Maintenance funding in lieu of a new construction projection.  Also they question the economic viability of the project due to the expense of the project.  The big expense is the upland disposal of the contaminated sediments.  The MRC has been monitoring the situation and has written a letter detailing the history of the dredging project, notably the funding request and the Congressional support.  Congress has already appropriated over $21 million for this project since 1993.  The State has appropriated $6.675 million, and there is a commitment from the City, County and the Florida Inland Navigation District.  The funding issues are clear and there is strong Congressional support.  Also the county is spending money for property and utility companies have already started relocating their utilities.  We want to make sure the Washington and Atlanta Corps offices are aware of the progress and expense.  Part two of this letter is asking our Congressional delegation to amend the Water Resources and Development Appropriations the to add some wording to basically direct the Corps to dredge the River.  The Atlanta Division office has been reviewing the  DMMP, DEIS, and PCA since April 30, 2002.  This has taken much longer than 60 days, which is the normal amount of time it takes to review projects.  David encourages everyone to write to their Congressional representative asking them to address this issue.  Congresswoman Ross-Lehtinen is spearheading an effort to get all six of the Florida Representatives to sign a letter being sent to the Congressional appropriations committee to add words to the appropriations bill to direct the Corps to dredge the River.  Jerry Scarborough advised David that he expects the Request for 

Proposals (RFP) will now be advertised in December versus October.  This slippage is caused by the Corps internal review in Atlanta. 

            Roman reported that the Financial Plan was submitted to the Corps and they are currently reviewing it.  The County is preparing the Land Certification and Roman is planning on submitting the plan to the Corps by November 1, 2002. 

Utility crossings are doing pretty well.  Teco Gas Company is somewhat of a question mark.  They had a utilities meeting last week about the lines located at 2^nd Avenue, which are a problem and he is unsure about what they are going to do.  David reported that Teco Gas has not satisfied the Corps in stating where their gas lines are located, since Teco does not have certified drawings indicating the various locations of the lines.  The Corps wants Teco Gas to verify the location of the gas lines.  Teco is working with the Corps to clearly define the gas line locations.  The other item that came up at the utility meeting was Bell South.  Their utilities are well below the channel and meet Corps requirements, however, their approaches coming up the bank on the side do not meet standards.  David is unsure of the details but apparently if Bell South has to move those lines it is going to be very expensive, a multi-million dollar project.  Bell South is asking the Corps to look at this issue and consider special dredging procedures near these communication lines to ensure they do not get damaged.  The way that Bell South has explained it, if the lines are severed, much of South Florida will lose phone communication for many months. 

            Carlos Espinosa reported on the status of the “bank-to-bank” project.  He stated that the second reading of the Ordinance amending Section 24-58.2 of the County Code was held last week and it was passed.  Since last months meeting with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in Tallahassee, the County has been working on a revised water quality permit for the incorporating the new language that was agreed to at the meeting.  They have submitted this revised draft to the FDEP for their review.  There has been an ongoing discussion between the State and the County regarding water quality data that was submitted to the State to satisfy background data needs.   Additional data analysis will be performed here in the next week or so and will be sent to the State.  Concerning the bank-to-bank permit the Corps cannot issue an authorization until the State issues their own authorization.  This is solely dealing with the bank-to-bank aspect of the project.  Several environmental organizations have requested a public hearing about the issuance of the Bank-to-Bank dredging permit.  Carlos was asked about the funding of the bank-to-bank project.  He said that Roman would be the best person to answer those questions and he has already left.  David asked that funding sources be researched, and stated that we should not put all of our hopes on getting funding from the TIF.  The estimated cost of this project is $15 million, which is a gross over-estimate. 

            David advised the group that the Corps is soliciting assistance in working with Customs and the Federal Marshall Service concerning how to move federally seized vessels during the dredging.  He also reported that Jerry Scarborough stated that all comments on the DMMP and the DEIS have been responded to.  He expects the Final EIS to be released today or in the near future and it will be posted in the Federal Register for 30 days.

            The next Dredging Working Group meeting was scheduled for Wednesday October 16, 2002 at 10 am.  The meeting will take place at the Rosenstiel School Library Map Room.