Ch. 7— The Effects of ttie 404 Program • 157 



percent of governmental permits, or 34.5 percent 

 of all permits, took longer than 120 days to proc- 

 ess in fiscal year 1980 (14). As described earlier, 

 RIA data include non-404 permits. While it is not 

 certain that these percentages would hold if 404 and 

 10/404 permits were considered, it is likely that 

 these figures for delay do represent minimum esti- 

 mates: 404-related permits constituted 54 percent 

 of permits issued in fiscal years 1980 and 1981, and 

 it is reasonable to assume that 404-related permits 

 were, on average, more controversiad, and thus 

 more subject to delay, than were non-404 permits. 

 If these percentages are accepted, a substantial 

 number of permit applicants do appear to suffer 

 delays, especially for commercial projects. 



Taking all oil- and gas-related 404 permits in 

 Alaska from February 1980 to September 1981, 

 GAO found that approximately 76 percent took 

 more than 105 days to process, that length of time 

 being GAO's definition of normal processing time. 

 Even using the more generous standard of 130 days, 

 more than half of such permits were delayed.^* 



Length of Delays 



According to IWR, the average Corps process: 

 ing time for routine permits (permits to which agen- 

 cies have not raised objections) has been reduced 

 from 84 days in 1977 to 70 days in 1981 .^^ As men- 

 tioned, zmother source estimated that average proc- 

 essing time for all permits except those requiring 

 an EIS was 131 days.^^ 



By a great margin, permits take longest to proc- 

 ess when EISs are required. Based on fragmentary 

 data, IWR estimated that processing such permits 

 takes an average of 815 days.'' The percentage of 

 all 404 permits that require an EIS, however, is 

 very small, about 0.03 percent. Large-scale proj- 

 ects are affected disproportionately. If permits re- 

 quiring EISs are not considered, the average length 

 of time to process permits is much less. 



The OTA survey asked associations to estimate 

 how long, on average, it takes to receive a final deci- 

 sion on a permit. API reported that processing takes 



"General Accounting Office (Tech. Note No. 9), p. 28. 

 "Institute for Water Resources, p. 39. 

 ''National Wildlife Federation, op. cit. 

 "Institute for Water Resources, op. cit. 



an average of 131 days (median time, 106 days). 

 Routine permits are processed in under 4 months; 

 permits to which objections are made average over 

 a year. These totals factor in permits for which EISs 

 are required. For Alaskan oU and gas permits alone, 

 according to GAO, the average permitting time was 

 150 days.'* AMC found average processing time 

 to be 8 months, with routine permits usually proc- 

 essed within 90 days and controversial permits tak- 

 ing an additional 5 or 6 months. FI did not pro- 

 vide an average figure, saying that application ap- 

 provals take from 2 months to over 3 years. The 

 three firms making up the AWO response reported 

 that processing takes from 3 to 8 months, 4 to 7 

 months, and "at least" 12 months, respectively. 

 Finally, the three ports making up the AAPA re- 

 sponse reported that processing takes 4 to 9 months 

 for routine permits, and several years for more con- 

 troversial permits. 



Sources of Delays 



It is difficult to determine what percentages of 

 delays are due to the various possible sources of de- 

 lay. OMB focused on delays caused by elevation 

 procedures and found that between March 24, 

 1980, and an unspecified date, there were 281 cases 

 in which a district engineer proposed to issue a per- 

 mit over the objection of another Federal agency. 

 Seventy cases, or 25 percent of such cases (and 

 about 0.6 percent of all 404-related permits proc- 

 essed), were elevated. Of these, the division en- 

 gineer resolved 55 (about 79 percent), for an aver- 

 age delay time of 150 days. Five cases were resolved 

 by the Office of the Chief of Engineers for an av- 

 erage delay time of 320 days. Five cases were re- 

 solved by the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil 

 Works) for an average delay time of 650 days, and 

 five cases were pending. (It is unclear if these delay 

 times represent additional days over what is con- 

 sidered normal processing time [120 days], or 

 whether they are total processing times.) The av- 

 erage delay for the 70 cases was 202 days. OMB 

 also stated, without listing a source, that the threat 

 of elevation affected an additional 1,700 cases, caus- 

 ing an average delay of 75 days. Of the 70 cases 

 in which permits were elevated as described by 

 OMB, requests for elevation were made in 50 days 



"General Accounting Office (Tech. Note No. 9). 



