Construction in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta has never been easy. It’s hard to build things in a wetland, and the construction season is short. For some that season just got shorter. A federal change could mean waiting months to get a construction permit that used to take only days.
Whether you realize it or not, every time you do any new construction in Bethel, you have to get the permission of the federal government — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to be exact.
“We’re in a wetland everywhere here, and so any new construction you do is most likely in a wetland," Ted Meyer, director of Bethel city planning, said.
Meyer said this permitting process is one way the federal government protects wetlands. But with that protection comes red tape that Bethel residents are now going to have to cut through themselves.
Ryan Winn, chief of the Corps’ regulatory division, said Bethel used to have something called a Regional General Permit. That’s like a blanket permit for all construction that happens over five years. It gave the city the authority to approve construction permits without going through the Corps every time. But Winn said that Bethel’s general permit was taken away because of disuse.
“To actually issue a regional general permit takes a lot of time and work load, right? So in order to justify spending that time, there needs to be a high volume of similar activities in a certain area that would justify us doing this work up front," Winn said.
Winn said Bethel doesn’t meet that volume, so now individuals will have to go through the Corps to get a construction permit. That permit only took around 10 days with the city, but Winn said a project could take years to approve if the building site could have a significant effect on aquatic habitat. There’s no straight answer. Every site is different.
“Individual permits within 120 days, but sometimes depending on the continuous nature of a project, it could take longer," Winn said.
Bethel City Manager Ann Capela asked the Corps to take over the permitting process for the city last spring.
“And the Corps said, well, we were moving towards taking that over anyway, so I had sent a letter that the city will no longer administer the Corps permits as of last year," Capela said.
According to the Corps, Bethel’s general permit would have expired Aug. 31, even if Capela hadn’t requested the change. Capela said she asked for the switch because the city didn’t have a planner last year and couldn’t properly do its own reviews. She added that the city had been getting a bad deal by taking on that responsibility in the first place.
“The Corps wanted us, the city, to do this for free. We are busy with our own required issues, let alone do the extra work for the Corps," Capela said.
Bethel is now in the second month of the new review process. Winn said the Corps will reexamine Bethel’s general permit at the request of the city in the future, but until then, residents should plan on planning ahead.
