The last time we dredged, our dredge contractor did the permitting. What are the pros and cons of having the dredge contractor perform this work, instead of signing up through the City’s umbrella permitting process?

There is a pro in this approach if a HOA or property owner wants to undertake the dredging on their own without piggybacking on the Corps dredging of the federal channel with the other dock owners on the Canal.

If a dredging contractor was doing your dredging independently, they would probably do the permitting at a lower cost. However, this also comes with the con that assumes a stand alone project would result in a higher cost for the dredging (due to mobilization costs) compared to the shared cost of piggyback dredging, so presumably the overall cost would be higher than the City’s umbrella approach. The other con is that due to a number of new regulatory requirements, the permit acquisition process in now more complicated than it was in 2012. Dredging contractors often specialize in dredging whereas the City’s umbrella permitting consultant (Haley & Aldrich) specializes in understanding the regulator expectations and the permitting process. The technical aspects of the sediment quality approval necessary under the permits will also be different and more challenging now too.