Galveston Bay to get $8M from oil-spill settlement

GALVESTON - The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council has set aside $8 million from a legal settlement related to the 2010 BP oil spill for Galveston Bay, the council said Thursday.

"It's a really good start," said Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, whose organization Wednesday issued a report that gave the overall health of the bay a "C" grade.

The Galveston Bay Foundation will use about $300,000 of the money announced Thursday to restore underwater seagrass to an area where it has been lost in West Galveston Bay, assuming the project remains when the final plan is approved later this year, Stokes said.

Clear Creek acreage

Most of the money allocated for Galveston Bay will be used to acquire 80 to 100 acres on Clear Creek, part of the Bayou Greenways project that aims to eventually preserve and restore nearly 4,000 acres along major bayous and creeks in Harris County that feed the bay, according to the priorities list. The acquired land would act as a buffer to help reduce the amount of pollution entering the bay. "It will filter the water before it gets to Clear Creek," Stokes said about the project, which includes hiking trails and bike paths.

The report card by the Galveston Bay Foundation and the Houston Advanced Research Center said that Galveston Bay was holding its own, but was under assault from pollution, habitat loss and the results of climate change, such as rising sea level. Stokes said the bay's health would decline unless action was taken.

Details on other money

Other money slated for Texas includes $6 million for Matagorda Bay and $7 million for Laguna Madre, the estuary separating South Padre island from the mainland.

The council said the money comes from a settlement by Transocean Deepwater Inc., a BP contractor at the time, for its part in the 2010 Deepwater Horizen oil spill, the largest in U.S. history.

The money for Galveston Bay is part of $139.6 million in restoration projects in 10 watersheds in the five Gulf Coast states, the council said. Another $43.6 million remains to be allocated.

The council is planning to fund other projects when the $5.5 billion agreement in principal between the federal government and BP is completed, council spokeswoman Kendra Parson said.

Eighty percent of the settlement will go to the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, which in turn gives 60 percent of its share to the council to administer. State and local governments will get a portion of the BP settlement.

The allocation for the three Texas estuaries is part of a draft plan that will be subject to public review and comment at a series of meetings. The only meeting scheduled in Texas is at 6 p.m., Aug. 20, at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.