PANAMA CITY — With the deadline looming to submit projects for funding consideration under a portion of the RESTORE Act, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission joined forces for a public webinar Wednesday to review the state’s restoration goals.
The dollars in question are controlled by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, a group tasked with developing a comprehensive restoration plan using a 30 percent of RESTORE Act funds.
Projects to access those funds must be submitted by council members, and each member can submit five proposals. The submission window closes Nov. 17, at which time the council would launch an extensive vetting and review process to develop a list of funding priorities, which will be published in early 2015.
With between $150 million and $180 million available for council-initiated projects, stemming from the $1 billion settlement Transocean, Ltd., Florida will have an opportunity to submit five projects through its appointed representative on the council.
The council is chaired by the secretary of the U.S. of Department of Commerce and also includes representatives from five other federal agencies and governor-appointed representatives from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Council Executive Director Justin Ehrenwerth said the entity is required to prioritize proposals with Gulf-wide significance and intends to focus on habitat and watershed restoration for the first round of projects.
“We are to look Gulf wide ... and really move forward with restoration that is comprehensive in nature,” Ehrenwerth said. “Our goal is to take all the public input we’ve received in the four years since the spill and make sure our projects reflect the richness of all that data.”
Even with a recent court ruling that found BP grossly negligent for its involvement in the spill, Ehrenwerth said the challenge lies in not knowing how much money the council will have to channel toward restoration efforts.
“It is just one piece of the case,” Ehrenwerth said. “Our biggest challenge is, we still don’t know how much money we’re going to have or when we’re going to have it.”
DEP representative Phil Coram said the process for selecting projects is competitive and there are no guarantees the funds will support Florida projects.
“Florida is just one of 11 members on the council,” he said. “It's unlikely that every submission will end up on the priorities list.”
Although DEP is still reviewing the more than 2,000 project submissions from residents and entities across the state, Coram said Florida’s proposals will likely focus on estuaries and watershed restoration, priorities that align well with those of the council.
“The estuaries are our front porches to the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “They are some of the most biologically productive areas on this Earth ... healthy estuaries lend themselves to a healthy Gulf of Mexico.”
Coram said projects submitted for the Panhandle region have also embraced the council and state goals.
“The Panhandle communities and counties are certainly embracing the watershed concept,” Coram said. “I think the Panhandle counties recognize that they all share estuaries and watersheds and recognize they all benefit from (restoring the) estuaries and watershed.”
Want To Comment?
- The state will be accepting public comment on the process through Nov. 5. Comments can be emailed to ashley.m.williams@dep.state.fl.us. For more information on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, visit www.restorethegulf.gov.