JACKSON, MS (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is hosting meetings this week as part of an ongoing project to develop a comprehensive plan for revitalizing the Gulf Coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
MDEQ executive director Gary Rikard said the meetings in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties are follow-ups to earlier sessions where local residents voiced their opinion on restoration resources.
Rikard said the new meetings will allow local, state and federal experts to explain the Mississippi Comprehensive Ecosystem Restoration Tool and how it will be used in the restoration.
The Resource Summits are a part of a $3.6 million planning grant awarded to the state from the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a multi-phase, three-year project.
Rikard said the three priority resources identified by the public during the earlier meetings were water quality, land conservation and living resources.
"These Resource Summits are an opportunity to pick up where we left off from the Community Conversations, and they will give the public a great opportunity to have a detailed and in-depth conversation about specific priority resources," Rikard said in a news release.
The meeting on land conservation will be held Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Ocean Springs Civic Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
A second meeting on living resources is Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Bay St. Louis Community Hall from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The meeting on water qualify will be Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Handsboro Community Center in Gulfport from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Three pools of money are earmarked for restoration from the 2010 oil spill.
The RESTORE Act will divide civil penalties from the Clean Water Act among the five affected states, including Mississippi. Those are projected to be between $5 billion and $20 billion.
