The Small Boat Harbor expansion project has hit another obstacle that could delay the project from going out to bid for a year or more.

The Haines Borough and PND Engineers learned this week they are required to obtain a “408 Permit” from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The permit is mandatory for any development tying into an existing Army Corps project – in the borough’s case, the rubble mound breakwater and navigational channel the Army Corps built in the harbor decades ago.

The permit will require additional studies, such as a sediment and circulation study, manager David Sosa told assembly members via email Tuesday.

“The Corps is not funded for this at this time and are uncertain how long this will take. Best case is several months, but there is the possibility that this can take a year or more,” Sosa wrote.

That means the harbor project’s permitting phase won’t be complete until the 408 permit review is done, Sosa said.

“Alternative options do exist such as not attaching (the steel wave barrier) to the rubble mound but this will add to the length of the wall, which will drive the cost up. We will continue to track and monitor this and keep everyone informed,” Sosa said.

PND Engineers vice president Dick Somerville said the permit requirement came as news to him. “We’ve all been caught by surprise,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

That’s because the permit is a new requirement, established in July 2014. Previously, tying into an existing Army Corps project was resolved through a basic review process, not a permit, Somerville said.

The 408 permit is so new that Haines is one of the first applicants in Alaska having to seek the authorization, said Julie Anderson, branch chief for the Army Corps’ operations program.

The agency hasn’t issued any of the new permits yet, but is working with seven other applicants statewide that are in the same boat as Haines. Only one of those has submitted an application. “Everybody else we are just having preliminary discussions with. So this is a young program,” she said.

The purpose of the permit is to ensure publicly-funded projects are being protected, she said. “Your existing harbor was built with public funds a long time ago, so we are supposed to be being stewards of those public funds and making sure the purposes it was built for are maintained throughout its life,” Anderson said.

Until PND Engineers submits the permit applications on behalf of the borough – the firm is handling permit applications for the harbor expansion project – Anderson said it is hard to tell how long issuing the permit will take and what will be required of the municipality in terms of additional studies.

Anderson agreed with manager Sosa’s characterization of it possibly taking a year or more.

“We are concerned with peoples’ harbor projects. We know the money is hard-fought and that schedules are tight, so we are going to do our best to work within the constraints people give us,” she said.

The harbor expansion project was delayed by two months this spring due to issues with mitigation and the relocated sewer outfall. According to the project’s timeline, the 95-percent designs were slated to be approved by the end of August, and bid documents would be ready to go out by December.

That’s not going to happen now, because the bid documents can’t be issued until all permits are finalized, Somerville said.

Somerville received the instructions for the 408 permit application this week. “It’s a pretty thick package,” he said.

He referred to the setback as a “yet-to-be-determined delay.”