Bay to get first RESTORE grants

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Seven years following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Bay County, Fla., will receive its first federal grants from the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE) damages program. The U.S. Treasury agreed to award two grants to the county. One is for $279,697 for a new dock for AMIkids Panama City Marine Institute, and the second a total of $392,997 for an extensive storm-water runoff study to determine what future treatment systems are developed to clean or divert runoff from going into the St. Andrew Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The projects are the county’s first two under the first round of RESTORE funding. RESTORE is an acronym for the federal law passed in 2012 to direct the allocation of civil penalties paid after July 6, 2012, under the Clean Water Act. (Source: News Herald 12/21/17)