RESTORE Council vote confirms $305 million for coastal ecology work
Updated Apr 28, 2021;
Posted Apr 28, 2021
Participants in the Gulf of Mexico Conservation Corps, aka GulfCorps, get information about a project on the shoreline of Mobile Bay in 2018. Funding approved Wednesday will extend the program for four years.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
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A $302 million slate of restoration projects approved Wednesday by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council includes well over $20 million in work intended to improve water quality and sustain ecosystems in coastal Alabama.
Alabama-centric projects approved for funding Wednesday include efforts to measure, protect and improve water quality in Mobile Bay, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the Perdido River Watershed.
$261M more for projects in Southwest Louisiana April 19, 2021, by Zlatan Hrvacevic
Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) has announced the U.S. Department of Treasury’s acceptance of Louisiana’s Second Amended Direct Component Multiyear Implementation Plan under the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act).
The amended plan refined the state’s strategy for spending its total allocation of $261 million from the RESTORE Act’s Direct Component of the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund.
CPRA will apply for grants to begin implementing the projects described in the amendment, consisting of large-scale hydrologic and marsh restoration projects in the Calcasieu-Sabine Basin.
Several opportunities for needed funding were open to discussion by Refugio County officials this month.
Spending for county projects was broached during a special meeting of commissioners court on Jan. 12, beginning with a discussion on how to best use funds on a potential RESTORE Act grant. Santos-McBain representative Hailey Satterwhite was on-hand to update commissioners on the grant and several potential uses.
Satterwhite stated that she has had ongoing talks with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on grant reviews, most recently following up with TCEQ on Dec. 9, 2020. When received from the state, grant money will be used on the Austwell/Hynes Bay Dock Pier and Fish Pier project, as well as the Austwell City Park and Woodsboro Veterans Park projects.