The Delaware Department of Justice is ready to take legal action to ensure the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers obtains state permits to proceed with its intent to dredge the Delaware River.
The Corps of Engineers has notified the state of Delaware of its plans to go forward with the Main Channel Deepening project, in order to allow deeper shipping channels, without state permits.
Attorney General Beau Biden said in a Saturday, Oct. 24 statement that his office is prepared to take legal action to ensure that the Army Corps of Engineers obtains Delaware permits before dredging.
The state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control recently denied the Corps' first permit application because the proposed project had changed significantly since originally submitted for consideration, said DNREC Secretary Collin O'Mara. Many of the potential environmental impacts of the changed project were unknown,
"DNREC remains committed to considering a new application through an efficient, science-based, and transparent permitting process,” O’Mara said.
The Corps of Engineers notified DNREC of its intent to go forward with the dredging project on Saturday, Oct. 24. The Corps' application, submitted in 2001 and the subject of a 2003 public hearing, sought state permits to dredge the navigational channel of the Delaware River to remove nearly 19 million cubic yards of material from the channel that runs from the mouth of the Delaware Bay at Lewes to the Delaware-Pennsylvania border near Claymont.
DNREC said the Corps has provided insufficient information about environmental issues in the application record and failed to identify a local project sponsor until June, 2008 when the Corps signed a contractual agreement with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. The Corps is required to identify a local sponsor in order to provide responsibility for environmental liabilities that may arise from the project.
The secretary's order, letter to Lt. Col. Tickner, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and hearing officer's Report are available at www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Pages/default.aspx.
