Posted on September 28, 2020
PADUCAH — It’s back to the beginning for the city of Paducah as leaders have to come up with a new dredging plan to get rid of the growing landmass by the transient boat dock along the Ohio River. The city applied for a dredging permit earlier in the year, but the Kentucky Division of Water denied that application.
City Engineer Rick Murphy says Paducah Water had concerns about the city’s dredging and disposal proposal. Concerns from the water company are a major reason the permit was denied.
“They were concerned about the sediment maybe coming into, I guess, the existence or the conflict of their raw water intake,” says Murphy.
The application denial comes after the city has already spent $9,950 to hire HDR Engineering to help with the permitting process. Now, the city will have to reapply for a permit. Murphy says that’ll cost more than $30,000 this time, which means they’ll have to put out a request for proposal so other companies can express interest. The other dredging proposals will also cost more and require additional surveys.
“There will be muscle surveys involved. We have to do research where the material will be disposed of to make sure we don’t harm any endangered species,” says Murphy.
Additional surveys and the reapplication process push the timeline for getting rid of the growing land mass even further.
“The timeline comes down to the permit applications, because there’s a 30-day public notice, 30-day comment, 30-day review, multiple agencies, so you can have multiple 90-day periods in there for that,” Murphy said, “We need to up our game and see if we can satisfy federal regulations on our pursuits.”
The city of Paducah was awarded a FEMA grant to help pay to remove the landmass. With the grant, FEMA will pay 75% of the overall cost, the state will pay 12%, and the city will pay 13%.
Already, the city has paid more than $50,000 for the a first application process, combined with consultant work involving the landmass.
Murphy says they will create the RFP as soon as they can, so they can begin the process of reapplying for the dredging permit.
Source: wpsdlocal6
