Spanish Fort News

International Marine and Industrial Applicators, LLC (IMIA), a portfolio company of an investment affiliate of J.F. Lehman & Company (JFLCO), announced it has acquired Main Industries, Inc.Headquartered in Hampton, Va., Main Industries provides preservation, scaffolding and environmental containment services to the marine vessel new construction and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) markets. The company supports the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier new construction and MRO requirements (including refueling overhauls) in the Mid-Atlantic region…

Public Hearings Scheduled to provide opportunities for public input. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), providing updated environmental and socioeconomic analysis to support two proposed lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 233 is tentatively scheduled for 2013 in the Western Planning Area (WPA), offshore Texas; and Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 231 is scheduled for 2014 in the Central Planning Area (CPA), offshore the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. BOEM will hold public hearings to provide an opportunity for interested citizens and organizations to comment on the environmental impact statement. Comments will be used to prepare the final SEIS.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a series of public scoping meetings to gather information for an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed oil and gas lease sales in Gulf of Mexico’s Eastern Planning Area offshore Florida and Alabama. This EIS is for proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226, which are included in the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. A leasing program consists of a proposed schedule of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing, and location of proposed leasing activity for the five-year period following its approval by the Secretary of the Interior.

New Orleans, La. — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that it will open a comment period and hold a series of public scoping meetings to gather information to be used in preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for two proposed oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico’s Eastern Planning Area. As the President discussed in his State of the Union address, BOEM has issued a Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012–2017, which would make more than 75 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas estimated on the OCS available for development. The Proposed Program schedules two sales (Lease Sales 225 and 226) in the Eastern Planning Area.

Public Hearings scheduled for Central and Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sales. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed a draft environmental impact statement regarding multiple oil and gas lease sales tentatively scheduled between 2012 and 2017 in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico planning areas, offshore the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program: 2012-2017 schedules five annual area-wide lease sales in the Western Gulf and five in the Central Gulf. “The draft environmental impact statement evaluates baseline conditions and potential environmental effects of oil and natural gas leasing, exploration, development and production in the Western and Central Gulf,” said BOEM Director Tommy P.

According to a report on http://www.newsroompanama.com, a team of U.S. archeologists reportedly has found wreckage which they believe is part of Welsh privateer Admiral Henry Morgan's flagship. The wreckage was found off Portobello and includes approximately 52x22 feet of the starboard side of a 17th century wooden ship hull which they believe to belong to Morgan’s flagship, Satisfaction, according to the report. Morgan lost five ships, including Satisfaction near Lajas Reef in 1671. The archeologists previously found six canons believed to belong to the fleet, and when the group ran short of funds, The Captain Morgan Rum Group named after the pirate, provided further aid for the project.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has awarded more than $1.8 million in Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) grants to the state of Alabama and to Mobile County, Ala. The grants will fund ongoing wetlands preservation, facility upgrades, and outreach initiatives for the state’s coastal areas. Created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, CIAP provides funding to the six Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas producing states to conserve and protect the coastal environment. CIAP is an ongoing program with grant funding that is allocated based on the offshore energy revenues collected by the United States.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) announced that it will hold a series of public scoping meetings in February 2011 on the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the proposed 2012-2017 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. On December 1, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced an updated oil and gas leasing strategy for the OCS and identified the areas that would be considered for environmental scoping for the 2012 – 2017 program (http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Announces-Revised-OCS-Leasing-Program.cfm). The final PEIS will cover…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a cease and desist order last week pending a determination by the Alabama Historical Commission for the development of piers at the site of the future Shellbank Landing condominiums. Kim Lea of Lea Diving and Salvage Company said developer Dent Boykin contacted him to determine whether there was a hazard in the water where new boat piers were to be built. The piers will be built in front of the future Shellbank Landing condominiums located at the base of the bluff on Blakeley River in Spanish Fort, near the Mobile Bay Causeway. Lea surveyed the area and found what looked like an existing boat hull, he said. It is now up to the Alabama Historical Commission to determine whether the vessel will be considered historical.