Texas TIG Annual Meeting Video Presentation Transcript Slide 1: - - PDF document

1 | P a g e Texas TIG Annual Meeting Video Presentation Transcript Slide 1: Welcome to the December 2019 Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment public meeting for the Texas Trustee Implementation Group, or Texas TIG. My name is Allison Fischer. I’m a Natural Resources Specialist with the Texas General Land Office, and a member of the Texas TIG. All the TIG members appreciate you taking time out of your day to be here with us. Slide 2: Today I’ll begin with an overview of the natural resource damage assessment and restoration planning process. Then, I’ll cover some background on the structure and funding of restoration the Texas TIG is working on. I will go into detail on some ongoing restoration projects and discuss the Texas TIG’s plans for the near future, including upcoming opportunities for public engagement in restoration activities. Below the presentation there is a link to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Public Comment Portal for you to submit any comments or questions. The Texas TIG reads every comment. We value and rely on public input. Slide 3: Before we get too far into the specifics of the Texas Deepwater Horizon NRDA update, I want to discuss what is Natural Resource Damage Assessment, or “NRDA” is and is not. The NRDA process is led by designated federal, state, and tribal trustee agencies and driven by law, science, economics, and public input. Our goal is to ensure that natural resources damaged by a spill are replaced or restored. The Oil Pollution Act authorizes the trustees to make the environment and public whole after natural resources and services are injured from an oil spill. The Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon Case in Texas make up the Texas Trustee Implementation Group, or “TIG” and include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department Of the Interior, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the Texas General Land Office. The Natural Resource Trustees assess how the nature and extent that an oil spill, and spill response activities injure natural resources and ecosystem services. Some of these resources may include recreational activities *click* Wetlands *click* Fish *click* Birds *click* and oysters.

2 | P a g e Trustees then determine how best to compensate the public through cost-effective on-the-ground restoration activities which correlate to the injured resources. Slide 4: It’s very important to emphasize that NRDA is not the same as RESTORE, though they are both part of the Deepwater Horizon restoration process. RESTORE comes from penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act. NRDA comes from the Oil Pollution Act obligation to compensate for damage to natural resources. The funds are obtained by different means, are given to different organizations and, are used for different purposes. While the programs have overlapping goals and funding sources related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, NRDA funds derive from the Oil Pollution Act and RESTORE funds derive from Clean Water Act penalties. Additionally, the project selection processes and funding requirements are different. The Texas TIG takes every opportunity to leverage NRDA funds with RESTORE funds to maximize restoration, but this presentation only addresses the NRDA project and planning updates. Slide 5: The federal and state trustees were required to develop a restoration plan before final settlement of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement was developed in early 2016 by all five Gulf states and four federal Trustees to define injuries and guide restoration efforts in the

• Gulf. We call this programmatic plan the “PDARP,” for short.

Slide 6: The PDARP comprehensively evaluates the injuries to natural resources and ecosystem services, addressing the wide range of linked resources over the larger area of impact. This is a higher-level planning document, not a list of individual project proposals. The PDARP presents the Trustees’ findings

• f injury and identifies the type and amount of restoration needed to compensate the public for the
• impacts. The PDARP identifies five restoration goals;

*click* Restore and conserve habitat like wetlands, coastal, and nearshore habitats. *click* Restore water quality through reduction of nutrient nonpoint source pollution, such as runoff, from farms, forests, and other nonpoint sources. *click* Replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources such as birds and sea turtles. *click* And provide and enhance recreational opportunities, such as the early restoration funds that provided for a new campground at Galveston Island State Park. *click* Finally, it is a foundational goal to provide monitoring, adaptive management, and administrative

• versight to support restoration implementation. This is to ensure project success, and to track the

compensation for the damage to the natural resources.

3 | P a g e Slide 7: Gulf Spill Restoration Dot NOAA Dot Gov is the website that provides the public with current news and information related to each TIG’s restoration efforts. The webpage dedicated to the Texas Restoration Area has up to date information on project implementation, funds allocation, and ongoing TIG activities. The page also has links to the PDARP, an interactive project map, and a table that summarizes the environmental compliance status for each project. Slide 8: Now that I’ve covered the restoration framework, I’ll move into an update of current projects and touch on the Texas TIG’s plans for the future. Slide 9: As part of the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Two hundred, thirty- eight million dollars was allocated for Texas restoration efforts, including approximately forty-nine million dollars previously received as part of early restoration. This graphic shows how the Texas TIG distributes the funds to the overarching restoration goals identified in the PDARP. Starting from the top and moving clockwise, seven million dollars is allocated for monitoring, adaptive management, and administrative oversight. One hundred million dollars is allocated to restore and conserve habitats. Twenty-three million dollars is allocated to restore water quality. Ninety-one million dollars is allocated to replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources. And Nineteen million dollars is allocated to provide and enhance recreational opportunities. The entirety of these nineteen million dollars for recreation was allocated during Early Restoration. These allocations are all based on the injuries documented in the PDARP. Slide 10: This bar graph shows the total amount of NRDA funding allocated to each restoration goal for the Texas Restoration Area. It also shows the percentages of funds the Texas TIG received; what we have already committed to restoration projects; and the amounts remaining for future restoration

• projects. The Texas TIG has committed around 44% of the two hundred thirty-eight million dollars for

restoration and related activities. The Texas TIG committed all funds for recreational opportunities, and most of the funds for sea turtle restoration during the early restoration time period. Roughly half of the funds for restoration of birds remains. More in-depth information on funding allocations and commitments can be found at the Gulf Oil Spill Restoration website. Slide 11: In 2017, the Texas TIG adopted its first Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment, or RP/EA, which identified 13 restoration projects for implementation. The Texas TIG is currently implementing 20 projects along the Texas coast, the thirteen from that RPEA and seven from early

• restoration. Projects are concentrated in the upper coast; the middle coast near the Corpus Christi area;

and the lower coast near the Texas/Mexico border. The projects fall into three broad categories: construction, restoration, and acquisition. Slide 12: I will go into detail on some of our projects that are nearing completion; Sea Rim State Park improvements, the Indian Point Shoreline Erosion protection project, and four land acquisitions; and I’ll touch on the TIG’s future planning activities.

4 | P a g e Slide 13: Sea Rim State Park is a unique coastal park Jefferson County, southwest of Port Arthur, Texas,

• n the upper Texas coast. *click* This project was part of early restoration and compensates for lost

recreational opportunities. The park has over five miles of Gulf shoreline and four thousand acres of marshlands. Common activities at the park include camping, birdwatching and beach combing, paddling in a canoe or kayak, swimming, fishing, in-season hunting and walking. *click* The Trustees funded a restroom, a fish cleaning shelter, and two wildlife viewing platforms – one in a marsh and the other in Fence Lake. *click* These new amenities are now open to the public. Each project funded with Deepwater horizon NRDA funds includes a monitoring phase to track and ensure project success. The Texas TIG is preparing to monitor this project. Slide 14: The Indian Point Shoreline Erosion Protection project is in Corpus Christi Bay along the shoreline of Indian Point Park, in Portland Texas, near Corpus Christi. *click* The bay-facing shoreline at Indian Point Park was eroding and degrading due to wave action and boat

• wakes. In 2015, the Texas General Land Office used coastal restoration funds to complete engineering,

design, and permitting for eight breakwaters that would stabilize the shoreline. *click* Two breakwaters were initially constructed. The Texas TIG selected the construction of the remaining six breakwaters to complete the project. Construction began in August 2019, and the substantial completion walk-through was completed on November 7. All eight breakwaters are now in place. Over the next five years, the Texas TIG will monitor the position of the shoreline behind the breakwater to ensure the project meets its goal of reducing the rate of shoreline retreat. Slide 15: The Texas TIG is currently working on several habitat acquisition projects selected in the 2017 RP/EA. Land acquisitions benefit multiple resources, provide a variety of habitats, and protect lands for public use into the future. We’re currently working on acquiring projects in Laguna Atascosa, Mid-Coast Habitat, Bahia Grande and Follets Island. *click* The Laguna Atascosa Habitat Acquisition project acquired and conveyed important coastal habitat to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be managed as part of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. *click* Funding provided by the Texas TIG leveraged with other funding sources to acquire over three thousand acres of beach, dune, and tidal habitats on South Padre Island, Texas. *click*

5 | P a g e The Mid-Coast Habitat Acquisition project acquired and a coastal estuarine land tract, which was conveyed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Texas Mid-Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Matagorda County. The project acquired over six hundred ninety acres of predominantly estuarine wetlands, which establishes a protective buffer to estuarine and bay waters and protects coastal wetland habitat from future land use changes. *click* The Bahia Grande acquisition includes coastal habitat that will also become part of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. *click* This property includes over thirteen hundred acres of tidal wetlands, thorn scrub, and coastal prairie with more than a mile of frontage on the Lower Laguna Madre and almost two miles of frontage on Laguna Vista Cove, a tidal inlet. *click* Follets Island is in between San Luis Pass and Drum Bay. The Follets Island acquisition is ongoing. We have already acquired over two hundred sixty acres of wetland and coastal habitats and more are

• planned. Once all the land tracts are acquired, the land will be transferred to and managed by the Texas

Parks and Wildlife Department for habitat preservation purposes. Slide 16: The Oyster Restoration Engineering project will identify methods to best restore, rehabilitate, and manage oyster reefs in the greater Galveston and Trinity Bay systems. The study portion of the project focuses on documenting best management practices for rehabilitating oyster reefs buried by sediment, and for constructing intertidal oyster reefs. *click* The project also has an allocation for construction of pilot projects in Galveston Bay System. *click* Results of the analysis and the pilot sites will be used to develop location-specific engineering, design, and environmental permitting documents for one or more oyster restoration projects that could be readily implemented. Slide 17: The PDARP identified the need to address coastal eutrophication. Eutrophication occurs when excess nutrients, often from stormwater runoff, cause plant and algal blooms. This leads to a reduction in dissolved oxygen levels in water bodies, and an increased potential for animal die offs. During preparation of the RP/EA, the Texas TIG determined planning for was needed to address the water quality restoration goal. The TIG decided to develop watershed selection criteria and nonpoint source nutrient reduction strategies for restoration planning along Texas coastal waters. The planning effort resulted in the Nutrient Reduction Restoration Strategies Report, which is complete and available for download at the website on the screen. The report includes methods and results of a study which identifies Texas coastal watersheds with the best opportunities to reduce nonpoint source nutrients.

6 | P a g e The report describes priority watersheds, and evaluates management strategies to reduce nonpoint source nutrients. One watershed the Texas TIG is examining Petronila Creek, which feeds Baffin Bay, near Corpus Christi. The Texas TIG is distributing the report to stakeholders. We plan to use the results to initiate and develop an upcoming round of restoration planning. Slide 18: That concludes the annual update. More details on these projects, and the others I didn’t mention can be found online at Gulf Spill Restoration Dot NOAA Dot Gov. Look for more information from us in the future as the Texas TIG moves forward with additional restoration plans. Public input is an important part of this process. If you have any comments or questions, we would like to hear from you. Please submit them via the link

• below. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to learn about what we’ve been working on.