44 projects in $627 million
Chaland Headland Louisiana barrier island restoration work conducted in 2006 by NOAA Fisheries and partners through the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection and Restoration Act. is similar to the Chenier Ronquille restoration work project proposed in the Phase III plan. (Image Credit: NOAA)
NOAA and its federal and state trustee partners today urged the public to provide comments on a draft plan to restore the Gulf after the 2010Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The plan outlines and describes 44 proposed restoration projects, totaling approximately $627 million.
Theplan was released by the Natural Resource Damage AssessmentTrustees for theDeepwater Horizon oil spill, nine federal and state agencies that act on behalf of the public to restore resources directly or indirectly harmed by oil released into the environment following the spill.
The projects included in the plan,The Draft Programmatic and Phase III Early Restoration Plan and Draft Early Restoration Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement,would restore barrier islands, shorelines, dunes, underwater grasses, oysters, and lost recreation. Under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)process, the Trustees have proposed projects that seek to address both natural resource and recreational losses caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
NOAA would take a leading role in executing four of the 44 proposed projects. Under the draft plan, NOAA would partner with Louisiana and the Department of the Interior to fund and execute restoration of beach, dune and back-barrier marsh habitat on Chenier Ronquille, a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana. Chenier Ronquille is one of four barrier islands proposed for restoration as part of the Louisiana Outer Coast Restoration Project. The total cost to restore the barrier islands as identified in this plan is expected to be $318 million.
Source & Image Credit: NOAA
