PANAMA CITY — In a couple of weeks, organizations seeking funds for environmental and economic development projects will be able to make their first pitches for money from a program that will compensate Bay County for damages related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
A citizens committee on Tuesday gave the green light for pre-applications to be made by organizations seeking grants under the RESTORE Act.
Pre-applications will be posted online at baycountyfl.gov/restore. Those that survive the pre-application process can make full applications for funds.
A tentative plan has been laid out in which the recommended projects for funding would go to County Commissioners in six months.
The RESTORE Act was created to help the Gulf of Mexico’s environment and economy recover from the oil disaster. Signed into law in July 2012, the RESTORE Act (Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act) dedicates 80 percent of all Clean Water Act administrative and civil penalties related to the Deepwater Horizon spill to a Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund.
The amount of money Bay County will receive through the RESTORE Act is unknown. The main source of funds is anticipated to be the federal lawsuit against BP. The federal government and Transocean have agreed to a settlement that will provide $6.3 million to Bay County.
That is the only money the county knows it is getting so far under the program, and the U.S. Treasury Department, which is handling the grant process, is urging counties to only develop plans right now for the money they know they will be receiving.
The county could be getting as much as $120 million as part of the RESTORE Act, and a judge’s decision last week to find BP negligent in the spill could help the county receive the higher end of this estimated amount, said Jim Muller, Bay County RESTORE Act coordinator. He said the amount coming to Bay County won’t exceed the $120 million.
A federal judge ruled last weekthat BP acted with “gross negligence” in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, and the company could be looking at paying close to $18 billion in additional fines over the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.
Erin Deady, a South Florida attorney experienced in federal rule making and environmental law that Bay County retained to help advise it through this process, told the committee that she expects BP to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Citizens committee member Neal Wade asked Deady whether the judge’s decision might expedite the time frame when Bay County can receive additional funds.
“It is a step in the process, so until you get that ruling, they can’t file an appeal, and you can’t keep fighting about it tomorrow,” Deady replied. “At the end of the day, there is no way to speculate the time frame. There are some that say that maybe that puts some pressure on BP to accept (a settlement). (The company) might take a look at stock prices over the next few weeks and see how that plays out.”
Jessica Koelsch, a Gulf restoration policy specialist with the National Wildlife Foundation, encouraged the citizens committee to fund projects in which the community can see the difference they are making.
“As you are evaluating those (pre-proposals), I really encourage you to maybe give a little extra consideration to projects that are really foundational or rooted in this community,” she said.
She said people in the community are very skeptical of how the RESTORE funds will be spent.
“There is a lot of skepticism and mistrust in the government process, and folks really don’t think that any of this money is going to go back to help them,” she said.
When people think of Bay County, they think of beaches and bays, and funding projects that have a nexus to these could create confidence and trust in the process, she said.
Mary Jean Yon, a legislative consultant with Audubon Florida, sat through the meeting and said at the end of it that Bay County is way ahead of others in the planning process.
“I will tell you it was worth the drive to come here for this meeting,” she said. “Bay County is head and shoulders above a lot of the other counties in terms of progress.”