The Latest: Fund to get $1M more in BP spill criminal fines

JACKSON, Miss. – The Latest on oil spill money for Gulf states (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

One of the directors of a fund overseeing criminal penalties from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill says that fund will be getting two more payments totalling about $1 billion by early 2018. Tanner Johnson says payments in 2017 and 2018 will come at the end of January.

Johnson was in New Orleans on Tuesday to say that the fund was giving Louisiana about $245 million for five projects. He noted that Louisiana is receiving about two-thirds of nearly $370 million allocated Tuesday to the five Gulf states.

An environmental coalition called Restore the Mississippi Delta praised $100 million for engineering and design work on two major projects to divert sediment-bearing water out of the Mississippi River to create new wetlands in Louisiana.

The coalition says those are vital to Louisiana’s strategy to restore and protect its coastal wetlands.

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3:15 p.m.

A spokesman for Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality says Mississippi does not yet have most of the money that Gov. Phil Bryant says the state is getting for coastal restoration.

Bryant said in a news release Tuesday that Mississippi is getting more than $114 million in BP oil spill money for 15 coastal restoration projects.

However, Robbie Wilbur says most of those projects are described in a draft restoration plan.

He says that includes $68 million under the RESTORE Act trust fund to allocate some water pollution penalties, and $21 million under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process. That process evaluates and restores resources affected by oil spills, hazardous waste sites and vessel groundings

Wilbur said in an email to The Associated Press that the state expects approval of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment money by the end of the year and in nine to 12 months for the RESTORE Act money.

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Noon

A national foundation says the five Gulf states are getting nearly $370 million for 24 projects to restore natural resources damaged by the 2010 oil spill.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation says Louisiana is getting $245 million, Alabama $63 million, Florida $32 million, Mississippi $16 million and Texas nearly $12 million.

This is the foundation’s fourth and largest round of grants so far. It will get a total of $2.5 billion in oil spill payments over five years.

Its grants totalled about $100 million in each of the first two years and more than $80 million last year.

Louisiana’s five projects include engineering and design for two major projects to divert sediment from the Mississippi River to create new wetlands. Six projects in Alabama include buying and restoring significant coastal habitats.

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10:30 a.m.

Gov. Phil Bryant says Mississippi is getting more than $114 million in BP oil spill money for 15 coastal restoration projects.

He says the money’s coming from three sources: $68 million under the RESTORE Act, $16.1 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and $21 million under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation — which got one of the smaller pots of money after the oil spill in 2010 — scheduled announcements for other Gulf states later Tuesday. The other two groups did not respond immediately to queries about whether similar announcements were planned Tuesday for Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

The Natural Resource Damage Assessment trustees will have a total of $8.1 billion to distribute. Another $5.3 billion from Clean Water Act penalties is going to the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, and $2.5 billion to the foundation.

Mississippi’s biggest projects are two clean water programs expected to reduce bacteria levels in the water near beaches. The state is getting $45 million in RESTORE Act money for one of them, and $11 million for the other. It’s also getting $11 million to buy key tracts to conserve habitat and help restore Graveline Bay, between Ocean Springs and Pascagoula.