BRADENTON — Because federal and state delays in issuing permits for the Wares Creek dredging project may cost Manatee County extra expense in a land lease, the county commission Tuesday decided to look into buying the property.
Commissioners were to review and possibly approve a two-year lease to use the Old City Hall property at 15th Street and Manatee Avenue West for a spoil site for the dredging project, but with the governmental holdup on the permits, the county would be paying rent for a period when the land would not be used.
“The uncertainty of when the Corps of Engineers will start makes it imprudent to spend money and have the clock start ticking,” said county Administrator Ed Hunzeker. “Also, we don’t know how the start date affects the end date.”
County Department of Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker, who is guiding the project through the process, said because an island of mangroves has developed in the middle of Wares Creek over the years since the project was first proposed about 20 years ago, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is now requiring a mitigation plan.
Hunsicker said he told the Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of the dredging, the county was willing to pay for the mitigation of the mangrove removal, but the DEP wants to include that agreement in its water quality permit.
Hunsicker told commissioners he was confident the project can get started by January or February.
Contacted after the meeting, Pam Vazquez, spokeswoman for the DEP, said a new permit is being crafted for the Wares Creek project.
“Basically, we issued back in January a notice of intent to issue the permit and we didn’t hear back from the Corps for five weeks,” Vazquez said. “Because it’s our understanding they’ve been in discussions with the county because there is a mangrove island that is supposed to be removed to allow flow of the water as part of this project and there needs to be mitigation for that.”
She did not have a time frame for when the new permit will be completed.
“It all depends on what is put in front of us as the proposal,” Vazquez said.
Officials at the Army Corps of Engineers office in Jacksonville did not return a telephone message Tuesday.
The delays were frustrating commission Chairman Gwen Brown who asked Hunsicker who in the two agencies needed to be contacted to get them “to move off the dime.”
“While they’re discussing this there’s no assurance the project will start in January,” Brown said.
Hunzeker said the county may have to sit this fight out since it is between two larger governmental agencies.
He said because of the bureaucratic delays at the state and federal levels, the county has to decide if it wants to spend money to lease property that it would not be able to use for maybe eight months.
Under the proposed dredging plan, material dredged from Wares Creek would be dumped on the Old City Hall site. Once dry, it would be hauled to a landfill.
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