City Submits New BP-Money Project Requests

ONE BILLION DOLLARS MORE AVAILABLE

BP has made a one billion dollar down payment on the costs of restoring eco-systems damaged by last year's oil spill. according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration.

Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, government agencies are broady assessing environmental damages in a process called National Resouce Damage Assessment. They will eventually present BP with a restoration plan which the company can choose to pay or dispute in court.                          

The city of Fairhope has submitted 3 more project requests to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Restoration Team for:


1. Fairhope Public Beach's Water Quality Treatment.                                                        
                                                 
This project includes relocation of the (duck pond) park road to create a larger natural water treatment , , .  in the form of constructed wetlands . . . including routing, control and treatment of stormwater from N. Bayview Park.

Stormwater from the Magnolia Beach area (north of the American Legion building) will also be treated via constructed wetlands.

                                 



2. Titi Swamp Wetland Purchase and Preserve.

The city would like to purchase this property and create a nature preserve . . . and a local wetland bank.

(The Titi Swamp, a privately owned 62 acre wetland, is located south of Nelson Rd. and east of Scenic 98 in the Battles Wharf area.)





3. Fly Creek Restoration.

This project includes restoring the creek and acquiring 104 (adjacent) acres for a stormwater quality /quantity treatment facility, a city park, and an arboretum.                                  









NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT UNDERWAY

Trustees Must Decide

According to their website:

"The projects first will be considered as part of the planning process for early restoration under the $1 billion agreement reached earlier this year among the Trustees and BP. All submitted projects also will be considered for longer-term restoration planning."

The first $1 billion will be divided among the 5 affected Gulf states (Fl., AL., MS., LA., Tex.)

$18 BILLION MORE FINES POSSIBLE

According to published reports, in addition to the restoration costs, BP could eventually be hit with up to $18 billion in fines under the Clean Water Act.

(Publisher's Note: The city has already received over $1 million from BP;  but most of that was used for installing the protective boom last summer. The remainder, about $425,000, has been proposed to be used for a new beach just south of the pier ("living shoreline"), beach sand replenishment,  and drainage infrastructure improvements. Any new projects approved will be in addition to these.)



Comments

Anonymous said…
Call me dumb, but what do these projects have to do with the BP oil spill? Looks like F'hope just wants to add more parks, etc.
Anonymous said…
Just more BP money grabs. When you're talking about potentially $18 BILLION dollars in fines going to the states affected, you would think Baldwin Co alone would get at least $1,000,000,000. From what I read, this money could be used beyond "environmental" projects ie. economic restoration which could be about anything. This is an amount that could transform Baldwin Co forever...IF politicians and crooks don't steal it. We need a public accounting of where every dollar goes in the newspaper every week. On amounts this large you could build convention centers, update infrastructure, and fund annual municipal functions just off the interest on what is left over (and with that influx, how about stimulating growth by cutting sales & property taxes?) But we can't let the state get a billion dollars and 5 years later the average resident can't even see a difference.
Anonymous said…
They all are good projects. If BP wants to make its local customers' feel better they would be advised to approve them.