FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Apr. 25, 2017
DEP Awards More Than $217,000 for Escambia County Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project
~RESTORE Grant to fund planning,
design and permitting of environmental restoration project~
TALLAHASSEE,
Fla. – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has
awarded more than $217,000 in RESTORE grant funding for the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project. Funding will support the first phase of planning, engineering, design and permitting
of the environmental restoration project.
Living shorelines address
erosion by providing long-term protection, reducing wave energy and restoring
vegetated shoreline habitats through strategic placement of plants, rock and
oyster reefs. Living shorelines also stabilize sediment, improve
water quality, and enhance habitats for oysters, fish, shrimp, crabs,
birds, sea turtles and other estuarine species.
"Investing in
projects like this are important to our coastal estuaries," said Drew
Bartlett, DEP deputy secretary for ecosystem restoration. "In addition to
providing natural shoreline protection, it also creates habitats necessary for
the variety of wildlife in Pensacola Bay, and subsequently the industries that
depend on them."
The project includes placing 24,800 linear
feet of rock and oyster reef breakwater and planting 205 acres of emergent marsh and
submerged aquatic vegetation habitat at three sites: one adjacent to White Island in northwestern Pensacola Bay, and the other
two on the eastern and southern shores of Pensacola Naval Air
Station.
Funding for the first phase of this project was received
through the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council’s Funded
Priorities List. The RESTORE Act, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 2012, and signed into law on June 6, 2012, by the President, provides a vehicle for
Clean Water Act civil and administrative penalties from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to be distributed to affected Gulf Coast states.
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