They favored the dredging plan, which would be 10 times as big as any environmental cleanup undertaken in this country.

It was that finding, among others, agency officials say, that pushed them to propose their dredging plan.

Yesterday was the deadline for public comment on the dredging plan.

Indeed, it has agreed to suspend work on the dredging plan until a new analysis is complete.

Several public reviews of the dredging plan are under way.

But carrying out the dredging plan will not come without discord.

Mrs. Whitman announced her intention to support the dredging plan on Aug. 1, but several opponents vowed to kill it one way or another.

Ms. Kreisher also emphasized that the agency wanted the dredging plan to be successful.

Meanwhile, the State Department of Environmental Conservation is preparing a new dredging plan to replace one rejected in 1989.

The Sierra Club, the national environmentalist group, went first, just before 5 p.m., and demonstrated in support of the dredging plan.