SACO — The city administrator has recommended that the city hire a Washington, D.C. lawyer to make sure the city is not responsible for all future maintenance of a proposed project by the Army Corps of Engineers that is planned to help offset beach erosion in Camp Ellis caused by the Saco River Jetty.

The Corps would like the city to sign an agreement that requires it to maintain the project, once completed, “indefinitely into the future,” said City Administrator Richard Michaud at a City Council workshop Monday.

This would include beach replenishment.

Under the proposed agreement, if the project is built and the city does not replace washed out sand, property owners along the beach could sue the city and force it to nourish the beach.

Michaud said that it was unlikely the council would sign an agreement that would put them at such a liability.

The proposed Camp Ellis project is a Section 111 project, which prevents or mitigates damages caused by federal navigation work. There has never been an agreement for a Section 111 project that requires the kind of maintenance obligation that the Army Corps is suggesting, according to the city administrator.

The law firm, said Michaud, has expertise in dealing with the Army Corps, and “will do the best that they can to make sure that Saco is not the first in this country to have such an agreement under a Section 111 program.”

Mayor Roland “Ron” Michaud said he thought the proposed agreement would put the city at in a vulnerable position.

“If we could find a way to extinguish that vulnerability, I think it would give us a lot more flexibility,” he said.

The Army Corps’ preferred solution to the erosion problem is to attach a spur groin in a perpendicular position to the current jetty, and replenish the beach with 300,000 to 400,000 cubic yards of sand. Administrator Michaud said that amount of sand would not be likely to last two years and could be moved in one storm. This amount of sand, at $10 a cubic yard, would cost about $3-4 million to replace.

The Corps’ preferred agreement would cost $17 million.

Administrator Michaud said his recommendation is a solution that would attach a spur groin to the jetty and have four offshore break waters. This option would cost $40 million.

Federal funds of $26.9 million have been authorized for a United States Army Corps of Engineer project in the bay, but funds have not been appropriated yet.

Mayor Michaud said that the proposal with four breakwaters would require beach replenishment twice every 50 years.

The city administrator said that in the past, he would have looked to Congressional delegates, but he said he didn’t think they would work to make certain the agreement wouldn’t have the maintenance clause.

“My recommendation to the council is to engage this Washington, D.C. law firm,” said the city administrator.

The mayor said that congressional staff has worked with the city on the issue, but it has been a difficult process and they have many other competing demands. He has been working on the Camp Ellis project for 17 years, he said, and added that he appreciates the support from the community.

“We’re not giving up,” he said.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.