Posted on May 22, 2018
The Gulf Consortium has approved the RESTORE Act’s state expenditure plan, which includes $12.6 million to clean up Bayou Chico and $12.6 million to improve water quality in Santa Rosa Sound.
The consortium formally approved the plan at a board meeting Thursday in Panama City Beach.
Gov. Rick Scott still needs to sign off on the plan, and then it must be approved by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.
The plan will allocate $292 million in third round RESTORE Act funds to 69 environment and economy projects — including one at Bayou Chico and another in Santa Rosa Sound — in 23 Florida counties along the Gulf of Mexico.
The $12.6 million for Santa Rosa Sound will go toward converting the Soundside and Holley by the Sea communities from septic systems to sewer systems and relocating the effluent discharge from the Navarre Beach Waste Water Treatment Facility to a 200-acre site on Eglin Air Force Base property.
If the RESTORE funding is approved, Santa Rosa County would still have to find another $33 million to complete the project, according to the expenditure plan.
Escambia County’s $12.6 million would help fund the removal of polluted soil from the bottom of Bayou Chico as part of a plan to remediate the soil, which could include dredging polluted areas.
The total cost to clean up the bayou was estimated to be $22.6 million, and, as of January, the county still needed to find $8.8 million to completely fund the project.
Stormwater improvements and environmental regulations over the last few decades have drastically improved the bayou’s water quality. But pollution still remains in the silt and mud at the bottom of the water.
A 2006 University of West Florida study found that years of industrial activity led to high levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals, including lead, mercury and zinc among others, in the bottom sediment.
That pollution has prevented a healthy food chain from developing at the bayou, county officials have said.
The Gulf Consortium was formed to qualify Florida’s 23 Gulf Coast counties for a third round of funding from the RESTORE Act, which was passed after the 2010 BP oil spill.
The RESTORE Act awards 80 percent of all fines related to the oil spill to the states affected by the environmental disaster.
The total is estimated to reach $6.6 billion by the final payment in 2031. The money is divided into five rounds, which are known as pots.
The consortium’s board includes one representative from each county’s government and six non-voting members appointed by the governor.
Source: pnj
