PARISHES RECEIVE $900K IN GRANTS
Dated: 03/11/2011
More than $900,000 in grants have been awarded to Vermilion and St. Martin parishes by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the former Minerals Management Service.
BOEMRE awarded four Coastal Impact Assistance Program grants totaling $1.3 million to Louisiana coastal communities for projects that prevent coastal erosion, develop conservation education opportunities and improve coastal transportation infrastructure.
Created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, CIAP provides funding to the six Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas producing states to conserve and protect the coastal environment. CIAP is an ongoing program with grant funding that is allocated based on the offshore energy revenues collected by the United States.
The four grants are:
$469,416 to reconstruct or rehabilitate four roadways in the Intracoastal City area of Vermilion Parish. Facilities located along these roadways provide a substanial amount of commerce for the local coastal community and support OCS activities.
$441,999 to construct and widen Charlie Field Road near Erath in Vermilion Parish, an important link that connects LA. 14 and LA. 331. This connection will provide an alternative route to Henry Hub, a natural gas transmission infrastructure facility critical to off-shore energy production.
$47,950 for the design and planning of an open air educational outreach pavilion and nature trail in Henderson along the eastern shoreline of Bayou Amy in central St. Martin Parish. The Bayou Amy Trail and Education Pavilion will teach visitors about conservation in the area and showcase natural features along the trail and in area waterways.
$350,000 for Phase I of a multi-phase project that will prevent continued erosion along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway caused by Hurricane Rita's storm surge. It will include the engineering, design and identification of land rights in the marsh areas surrounding Horseshoe Lake in southern Calcasieu Parish about three miles northwest of Hackberry.