Notice of Intent to Draft Restoration Plan in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group has initiated development of our Draft Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment #5. This plan will propose restoration projects intended to compensate the public for injuries to oysters and marine mammals caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Our intent is to use a portion of the total oyster and marine mammal funding allocations in this plan, with additional restoration planning for these Restoration Types in the future.
We will consider projects submitted in response to our August 2017 request for project ideas, and anticipate Draft Restoration Plan #5 to focus on:
- Oysters: Oyster reef habitat restoration, with emphasis on projects that address recruitment issues.
- Marine Mammals: Increasing marine mammal survival through better understanding of causes of illness and death, and early detection and intervention of anthropogenic and natural threats.
Understanding the causes of illness, as well as detecting threats to marine mammals as early as possible, will support immediate actions we can take to restore them. It will also provide information that will help us identify and assess future projects.
We expect to release the Draft Restoration Plan #5 in late 2019. The public will be given the opportunity to review and provide input on the proposed plan. After the public comment period ends, we will review and consider all relevant comments and revise the plan as appropriate before releasing a final restoration plan.
Consistent with the Trustee Council’s Programmatic Restoration Plan, project alternatives will be evaluated consistent with the criteria in the Oil Pollution Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and their implementing regulations.