What would you spend BP money on?

[Kurt]

There will be a County workshop on the County's proposed projects for the Early Restoration Funding under the federal Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) for the Deepwater Horizon oil impacts. As a short reminder, an oil spill of the Deepwater Horizon magnitude triggers a natural resources damage assessment under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The purpose of the assessment is to determine the extent of impacts from the spill and related activities for which the responsible parties will be held accountable and to formulate resotration options.


BP, as a responsible party, had indicated it will pay one billion in restoration projects to be used as offsets for the final NRDA damage liability. The one billion covers five states and is under an early restoration agreement with federal trustees. By agreeing to fund projects before the conclusion of the liability assessment, BP is accumulating credits toward its ultimate liability under NRDA.

Walton County has participated in applying for early restoration funding for NRDA projects. NRDA requires public involvement in the project approval process. The county is holding a workshop for both Commissioners and the public on May 7, 2013, starting at 5 PM at the courthouse annex south of the Bay. County staff will be presenting the NRDA projects it has submitted and seeking Commission guidance and public input. Examples of the County submissions are:

• fishing pier at Grayton Beach State Park.
• Beach Access Improvements : Walton Dunes, Montigo Avenue, Overflow Parking for Montigo, Santa Clara and Paleyo Beach Accesses.
• purchase of outfall sweep area for several coastal dune lakes
• Water Quality Monitoring and Restoration of Choctawhatchee Bay.
• Artificial reefs
• Etc.

 

[Bob Wells]

Beach renourishment, why wait until we need it. Lets look at advances to keep our beaches from being eroded. I seem to remember seeing something like tubes placed at or near a sandbar that allowed the sand to move to the beach but hindered it from washing out. Maybe it was a dream and someone should make it...

 

[lenzoe]

Water Quality improvement, not just monitoring. There's still something funky going on carrying over from last year.

Green space. They should put some money into purchasing beachfront and creating some beachfront public parks. Also off beach green space parks.

If there's any more beachfront development, it shouldn't be done without corresponding access points and green space going along with the development.

More bike paths, and more connector roads from 30A to 98 to alleviate congestion.

Growth restrictions -- limit new building permits.

These last two may not have anything to do with BP money, but they should do them anyway.

 

[BeachSiO2]

Not sure about the tubes, but I would agree with beach nourishment. The Walton County Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction federal feasibility study (Federal Project Step 2) will be done later this year and we hope to start the Preliminary Engineering and Design phase (Federal Step 3) later this month. Step four would be construction, but it will take a little while to get there FY 2014-15 is the current goal. I would expect a workshop later this year once we get a little more information. We held one last year at a BCC meeting.

To date, all activities related to these studies and beach nourishment projects (since 1998) are funded through the 1% bed tax collected for beach nourishment by the TDC. Beach Nourishment is also listed on the County's priority list.

 

[Paula]

My two cents is to keep some of it saved for getting the beach and boardwalks back together after the next few hurricanes. And I agree that if there's a water quality problem, that should definitely be fixed. The quality of the water and the beach are the #1 reason people come here and what makes SoWal special, and anything else would be second to those.

 

[Beach Runner]

I'd spend it on research on the effects of oil and Corexit in the Gulf. This article was a link in this week's Surfrider.org newsletter. Scary. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-gulf-oil-spill-fish-20130502,0,6888111.story

 

[Zebraspots]

The fishing pier at Grayton is a horrible idea. A giant pier stretching 1,500 feet into the Gulf at one of the most beautiful and iconic places in Sowal. Almost as ugly as an oil rig!

 

[Andy A]

It is amazing the different and varied ideas posters have as to what to do with this money. Most of them bad or at least basically unworkable. Thank you, BeachSiO2, for keeping those uninformed about the progress of beach restoration, informed. You do a great job for Walton County in this area.

 

[tsutcli]

The fishing pier at Grayton is a horrible idea. A giant pier stretching 1,500 feet into the Gulf at one of the most beautiful and iconic places in Sowal. Almost as ugly as an oil rig!

I agree, come the first serious storm and it will be in the gulf, and we will be out serious money to remove and replace. Then there is the on-going expense of maintenance and security.

 

[j p nettles]

Today I was passed by a Lexus LFA on 98 near Miramar Beach. I couldn't help but wonder if somebody got hold of $500,000 in BP money for a cool ride. Then again, maybe the TDC bought it.