Florida wants your ideas for repairing some of the coastal ecosystems degraded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the lead state agency overseeing how Florida spends its BP Deepwater Horizon settlement money, is taking ideas through Friday, May 15 for the fourth round of restoration work along the Gulf Coast.
The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and starting the largest marine oil spill this country has ever seen.
At least 134 million gallons of thick crude oil poured into the Gulf over nearly three months before the well was capped. BP, the federal government, and the five Gulf states reached a roughly $21 billion settlement in 2016 to pay for environmental recovery.
Florida's share was well over $3 billion.
Southwest Florida escaped much of the oil on the shore that affected Louisiana due to the path of the Loop Current at the time. However, tourism collapsed as people stayed away due to all of the unknowns at the time. More than 500 claims for economic-related damages were paid in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties alone totalling $23.5 million.
Now the state wants ideas to help reduce the spill's effects on water quality in the coastal environment as well as harm done to animals that nest along the beach including sea turtles and dolphins, which stranded along Southwest Florida for years after the catastrophe.
Another problem needing a solution is reducing the runoff fouling coastal habitats. That includes paying farmers to keep fertilizer out of waterways, managing forest land to slow erosion, and planting buffers along the coast and rivers.
Water quality projects should reduce the pollution and bacteria flowing into bays and estuaries, rebuild wetlands, and protect shorelines.
For sea turtles, the state wants to improve various techniques used when the proper agencies respond to deal with sea turtles when they wash up sick, injured, or dead.
The DEP and other agencies are collecting ideas that give shorebirds places to nest and feed. One is using long mounds of broken oyster shells to protect areas where birds like the American oystercatcher lay their eggs.
Another is stationing volunteers during nesting season to keep dogs and beachgoers away from chicks. Then there is a notion that installing rock piles and reefs in the water just off the beach would knock back waves large enough to wash away the nests some shorebird have set up right in the sand.
Ideas can be entered online here through May 15.
Previous suggestions will not be reconsidered.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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