FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2013
MORE THAN 100 ATTEND DEP AND FWC PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE GULF COAST ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION COUNCIL
~Additional meeting to be held to accept comments
on Council’s draft Plan ~
TALLAHASSEE – Monday, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hosted a public
meeting to accept public comment on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration
Council’s draft Initial Comprehensive Plan: Restoring the Gulf Coast’s
Ecosystem and Economy. More than 100 people attended the meeting, the first of two planned in Florida.
“I am again amazed to see the overwhelming support
for the Council’s good work and the number of citizens attending our meetings to
provide thoughtful comments,” said Mimi Drew, Governor Rick Scott’s representative
on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council. “I look forward to hearing from others at our
next meeting in St. Petersburg.”
The draft
Initial Comprehensive Plan establishes overarching restoration goals for the
Gulf Region, describes how the Council will solicit, evaluate and select
ecosystem restoration projects and programs. The goals, objectives and evaluation criteria are intended to guide the
Council’s ecosystem restoration funding decisions. The goals provide the Council’s desired
long-term outcomes for Gulf restoration; the objectives outline the broad types
of activities that will achieve the goals; and the evaluation criteria are used
to evaluate proposals and give highest priority to the programs and projects that
best achieve comprehensive ecosystem restoration. The draft Plan also describes the process for
the approval of State Expenditure Plans that will fund ecosystem restoration
and economic development.
The Department provided an update on the Council
projects that have been submitted to the state and accepted comment on the draft
Initial Comprehensive Plan. An
additional public meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. June 17 at the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research
Institute in St. Petersburg.
The
RESTORE Act, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 2012 and signed into law
by President Obama on July 6, 2013, creates the Council, and establishes
various funding categories. The Council is comprised of the five Gulf State
Governors and six federal agencies. The
Council is required, after notice and opportunity for public comment, to have
published an Initial Comprehensive Plan by July 6, 2013
To view or provide comments on the
draft Initial Comprehensive Plan visit www.restorethegulf.gov, or submit written comments by mail to Gulf
Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council c/o U.S. Department of Commerce 1401
Constitution Avenue N.W. Room 4077 Washington, D.C. 20230. More information on the Florida’s public
meetings and state projects can be submitted online by visiting www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/projects_restore_act.
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