The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved a grant for $1,237,608 to the Plaquemines Parish Government in La. through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). The money will be used for the first phase of a planned wetland repair and restoration project along Fringe Marsh, in the vicinity of the Plaquemines Levee in Plaquemines Parish, located approximately 50 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Grant funding for the first phase will include planning, engineering and design, and permitting for the project. The project’s goal is to identify eight sites and borrow areas for the eventual restoration of approximately 300 acres of wetland area along the Fringe Marsh, a tidal shoreline stabilization and buffer system at the base of the Plaquemines Levee on the seaward side.
The CIAP was created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Through the program, MMS will provide $250 million in grants annually, from 2007-2010, to six eligible Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas producing states – Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, California, Mississippi, and Texas. The funding to Louisiana included $127.5m for each of the fiscal years 2007 and 2008 and $120.9m for 2009 and 2010. Nineteen Coastal Political Subdivisions (parishes) share in the funding of projects outlined in the state’s approved plan.