SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

On April 20, 2010, the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling a well for BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP), experienced a significant explosion, fire, and subsequent sinking in the Gulf of America, resulting in the release of millions of barrels of oil and other discharges into the Gulf. Under the authority of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA; 33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.), designated Federal and State trustees, acting on behalf of the public, assessed the injuries to natural resources and prepared the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Final PDARP/PEIS), and subsequent record of decision (ROD), which sets forth the governance structure and process for DWH restoration planning under the OPA's natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). On April 4, 2016, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana entered a consent decree resolving civil claims by the Trustees against BP.

The Louisiana TIG is composed of the State of Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, Departments of Environmental Quality, Wildlife and Fisheries, and Natural Resources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Open Ocean TIG is composed of the EPA, DOI, NOAA, and the USDA. Each TIG selects and implements restoration projects under that TIG's management authority in accordance with the Consent Decree. The Final PDARP/PEIS, ROD, Consent Decree, and information on the DWH Trustees can be found at https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/​restoration-planning/​gulf-plan.

Background

On September 9, 2024, the Louisiana and Open Ocean TIGs posted a “Notice of Intent to Conduct Restoration Planning” on the NOAA Gulf Spill Restoration website informing the public that they were beginning to jointly write a draft restoration plan that would build upon previous engineering and design work funded by DWH Trustees to evaluate options for restoration of the Chandeleur Islands, addressing injuries to multiple resources caused by the DWH oil spill. The RP/EA includes a reasonable range of six action alternatives and identifies two preferred alternatives for implementation.

Overview of the Louisiana and Open Ocean TIGs' Draft RP/EA

The Draft RP/EA is being released in accordance with OPA, its implementing NRDA regulations found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 15 CFR part 990, the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Final PDARP/PEIS, and the consent decree. The Draft RP/EA provides OPA and NEPA analyses for a reasonable range of six action alternatives. Four of the action alternatives are habitat improvement alternatives with various island restoration features, including beach and dune fill, marsh fill, sand reservoirs, pocket marshes, and feeder beaches. The preferred habitat improvement alternative would provide the greatest sustained gains in beach/ ( printed page 25074) dune and marsh habitat acreage compared to the other habitat improvement alternatives, is the most cost-effective, and has the highest likelihood of success. The plan also analyzes implementation of two fish and water column invertebrates (FWCI) restoration alternatives for the Chandeleur Islands. The preferred FWCI restoration alternative involves education, engagement, and communication with stakeholders to restore FWCI from human-use related impacts from fishing, boating, and ecotourism. The non-preferred FWCI restoration alternative would monitor fisheries populations through telemetry.

The total estimated cost to implement the two preferred alternatives is approximately $360,000,000, of which approximately $247,000,000 is proposed to be funded from the following DWH NRDA restoration type allocations:

• Louisiana TIG Wetlands Coastal Nearshore Habitats: $150,000,000;
• Louisiana TIG Habitat Projects on Federally Managed Lands: $25,693,273;
• Louisiana TIG Submerged Aquatic Vegetation: $22,000,000;
• Louisiana TIG Birds: $30,000,000;
• Louisiana TIG Sea Turtles: $4,000,000;
• Open Ocean TIG Birds: $5,000,000; and
• Open Ocean TIG Fish and Water Column Invertebrates: up to $10,000,000.

Administrative Record

The documents comprising the administrative record for the Draft RP/EA can be viewed electronically at https://www.doi.gov/​deepwaterhorizon/​adminrecord under folder 6.5.5.2.

Authority

The authority for this action is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.), its implementing Natural Resource Damage Assessment regulations found at 15 CFR part 990, and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).

90 FR 25072