City of Saco reviewing suggested planned partnership agreement from the Army Corps

SACO — After many years of anticipation, a proposed agreement to mitigate beach erosion is finally on the table between the city of Saco and the Army Corps of Engineers.

For decades, local officials have sought a solution to alleviate erosion on Saco’s coast caused by the Saco River Jetty. The jetty extends about 6,600 feet into the Atlantic Ocean from the mouth of the Saco River, and was built by the Army Corps of Engineers about 150 years ago to create a clear shipping channel in the river.

Over the years, significant erosion along Saco’s coast has occurred, destroying homes and washing away streets. The erosion has been blamed on the jetty, which has displaced wave energy and the natural movement of sand.

In 2007, the federal government allocated about $27 million for an Army Corps project to mitigate erosion caused by the jetty, though a plan has yet to be agreed upon or completed.  A few years ago, talks between the City of Saco and the Army Corps rekindled after having stagnated. Since then, the federal government has increased the allocation to $45 million, and Saco now has a draft of a proposed partnership agreement from the Army Corps.

A proposed partnership agreement, or PPA, is a legally binding document between the federal government and a non-federal sponsor -in this case, the city of Saco- for construction of a project. A signed PPA is necessary for the proposed Army Corps project in Saco to move forward.

The Army Corp’s proposed project would construct a spur jetty of the side of the current jetty, and would extend 750 -feet into the ocean perpendicular from the main base of the jetty.

The proposed PPA was discussed at Monday night’s City Council meeting. A public hearing on the suggested agreement has been scheduled for the Nov. 6 City Council meeting, and the Council will vote on the agreement at a later date.

“This is an exciting milestone. Back in 2007, we thought we’d be at this milestone in 2008 or 2009,” said Public Works Director Patrick Fox at Monday night’s meeting.

Fox addressed questions regarding the city’s responsibilities for the proposed erosion mitigation project.

He said there were a lot of unique aspects of the suggested project, one major item being that these types of items are typically under $10 million, while this project was $45 million.

Some future costs and liabilities to maintain the proposed spur jetty and related construction after completion may be shifted to the City of Saco, said Fox, though he didn’t have any concrete answers at Monday’s meeting.

 “It’s going to be hard for me to quantify those for you. We’ll do our best along the way,” he said.

The proposed PPA was under legal review, said Fox. He said the city had forwarded some preliminary review to the Army Corps to determine how much flexibility there was in the proposed agreement. He said he hoped to have some feedback from the Army Corps regarding these concerns in time for the public hearing.

“They are stuck in a pretty constrained, programmatic world, where some of the language we would like to see or assurances may not be able to get into the project partnership agreement,” said Fox.

He said the city is asking to have “a seat at the table” when the operations and maintenance manual for the spur jetty is drafted, as the city will be the operator and maintainer of the spur jetty.

Fox said the $45 million price tag included four deliveries of 65,000 yards of sand to replenish the beach. While the federal government is anticipating that these deliveries would be made every ten years, in reality they may not last ten years due to coastal storms, sea level rise and other factors, said Fox.

“It’s a historic moment and we should just take a minute to breath and … be happy that we got here and celebrate that,” said Councilor Michael Burman.

He said people have been waiting a lifetime to see a PPA from the Army Corps to get the spur jetty built, and he thanked the work of city staff, the Shoreline Commission, local advocacy group SOS Saco Bay and the federal delegation.

The proposed PPA can be found on page five of the City Council’s Oct. 16 meeting commentary.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.