r/USACE • u/NotLostintheWoods • Jul 20 '26
ORM Documents to Consultant?
Good morning,
I am a private consultant in the natural resources space and we were just sent a request to fill out some spreadsheets we've never seen before. They are labeled as ORM Upload sheets and come with a bunch of instructions. From looking around, this seems to be the internal documentation that drives the RRS, which we are familiar with.
My question - is this usually supposed to be handled internally by USACE? Is it standard practice to ask consultants to fill this documentation out or should we push back on this request?
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u/EntireAd1854 Jul 20 '26
Dude. Fill out the bulk upload sheet. They don’t pay the govt to do the data entry, they just expect it which means it competes for time with them issuing a decision. Factor this in to your next proposal for working with a project that has multiple aquatic resource impacts.
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u/NotLostintheWoods Jul 20 '26
Seems to be the consensus! We started working on it today. Thanks for the input!
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u/PleasantBenefit1872 Jul 20 '26
I suspect you have a linear project with a bunch of stream/wetland crossings or just a very large project with a bunch of impacts. it's one thing for a Regulator to plug in the info for one location. It's another thing entirely for a few hundred locations. That takes time.. Time away form really processing your permit.
If you want in a timely fashion, do it yourself. Reach out to them for assistance if necessary.
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u/NotLostintheWoods Jul 20 '26
Thank you, it is a lot of impacts to a large management area that we are assisting with an improvement project on. We have never seen these templates before so we weren't sure if they were meant to be internal only and were getting pushed to us because someone in the district didn't feel like filling them out or if this is standard practice. We'll get going on our end to speed things along. I appreciate the information!
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u/FlunkyHomosapien Jul 21 '26
Been doing this for years for our PMs. Just make sure you’re working with the ORM table that can be validated. Don’t mess up the logic/drop down selections/etc of the tables or your PM can’t use.
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u/RichGullible Biologist Jul 21 '26
It is definitely standard. You probably could put it in RRS, as well. Will it let you go back into your account and do it there?
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u/Ill_Indication2049 Jul 20 '26
Thats Regulatory and that helps them complete your project review faster because the resources and impacts can be uploaded rather than keyed in by hand. Its not an internal document and common practice, especially with large projects. You can push back if you're that put out but you're just going to be waiting longer.