Alabama Trustees approve more funds for the Bayfront Park Restoration and Improvement
The Alabama Trustee Implementation Group has approved using earned interest for the Bayfront Park Restoration and Improvement – Phases IIa and IIb Project (Bayfront Park project). The Bayfront Park project will provide enhanced recreational opportunities and benefit sea birds. This project includes shoreline stabilization, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking, a pavilion, restroom facilities, and other park improvements. The additional funding was necessary. In the three years since the original budget estimate was created for the project, construction costs have increased dramatically and in an unprecedented manner. Additionally, environmental compliance work over and above what was initially anticipated was required. This delayed implementation and further increased project costs. The Bayfront Park project was approved in the Alabama Trustee Implementation Group Restoration Plan III and Environmental Assessment: Provide and Enhance Recreational Opportunities; and Birds (RPIII/EA), which was publicly released on December 20, 2019. This project includes shoreline stabilization, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking, a pavilion, restroom facilities, and other park improvements. The original project budget was $4,683,304. Work began on the project in early 2022, and to date, the shoreline stabilization work has been completed. The project engineer’s estimate of the increased costs is $3,884,081. The new budget for the Bayfront Park project is $8,567,385, of which $991,723 will be funded from earned interest. With this additional funding, each of the original project elements will be completed. The Alabama Trustee Implementation Group hopes to complete the construction of this project in 2023. The funds are from the settlement from the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon disaster. After the mobile drilling unit exploded, caught fire, and eventually sank in the Gulf of Mexico. This released 3.19 million barrels of oil and natural gas from the BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP) Macondo well, causing extensive natural resource injuries. Initial efforts to cap the well following the explosion were unsuccessful. For 87 days after the explosion, the well continuously and uncontrollably discharged oil and natural gas into the northern Gulf of Mexico. Oil spread from the deep ocean to the surface and nearshore environment from Texas to Florida, impacting the Alabama Gulf Coast. Natural resources impacted included: deep-sea coral, fish and shellfish, productive wetland habitats, sandy beaches, birds, sea turtles, and other protected marine life. The DWH oil spill prevented people from fishing, going to the beach, and enjoying typical recreational activities along the Gulf of Mexico. The DWH oil spill was subject to the provisions of the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990, which addresses preventing, responding to, and paying for oil pollution incidents in navigable waters, adjoining shorelines, and the exclusive economic zone of the United States. Under the authority of OPA, a council of federal and state “Trustees” was established on behalf of the public to assess natural resource injuries resulting from the incident and to work to make the environment and public whole for those injuries. As required under OPA, the Trustees conducted a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and prepared the Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan/Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Final PDARP/PEIS). The Alabama Trustee Implementation Group includes two state trustee agencies and four federal trustee agencies: the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR); the Geological Survey of Alabama; the United States Department of Commerce, represented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); the United States Department of the Interior (USDOI), represented by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service; the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA); and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (collectively the AL TIG). To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Judge: BP not to pay oil industry losses from moratorium
A federal judge ruled that BP does not have to pay for economic losses other businesses suffered when the federal government shut down deep-water drilling in the wake of BP’s catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans issued his ruling late Thursday. The Obama administration imposed a six-month drilling ban in the Gulf to prevent another disaster. The offshore industry called the moratorium a costly mistake. Barbier’s ruling came in a lawsuit brought by six companies involved in offshore drilling, but plaintiffs’ lawyers said thousands of similar claims worth billions of dollars would be affected by the ruling. The case centered on whether BP was liable under the Oil Pollution Act for the loss of business caused by the moratorium. Barbier sided with BP and said the law relates only to damages caused by the spill. The judge said Congress never intended for the Oil Pollution Act “to go so far” as to hold a polluter liable for government steps, like a moratorium, “aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future and which broadly affect an entire industry.” The Oil Pollution Act was passed in 1990 after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and it is the principal law covering oil spills. At issue was whether BP should be made to pay for damages that were “not a direct result of an oil discharge,” Barbier wrote. Barbier said “there can be no doubt” the moratorium was imposed because the blowout occurred, but the judge said the shutdown was designed to deal with “the risk of possible future blowouts and oil spills from wells other than Macondo and was motivated by perceived weaknesses of industry-wide safety measures.” BP declined to comment Friday on the ruling. The spill has cost the company $55.5 billion, according to a recent BP regulatory filing. Brent Coon, a Texas plaintiffs’ lawyer who represents clients with moratorium claims, said in a statement Friday that the ruling was a setback. Coon’s statement said the ruling “bodes poorly for yet another massive block of claims that have been waiting for years” for compensation. In April 2010, a well being drilled by BP and its contractors blew out and led to the sinking of the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon, killing 11 workers. The blowout caused more than 130 million gallons of oil to leak into the Gulf. In 2012, BP entered into a settlement with businesses and individuals claiming losses from the spill expected to cost BP over $10 billion. Last year, BP reached an $18.7 billion agreement with governments in the five Gulf Coast states affected by the spill. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
