Louisiana would spend $923 million on hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects during fiscal year 2013, including $161 million to pay part of the state’s share of the upgraded New Orleans area hurricane levee system, and $23 million toward the Morganza to the Gulf levee protecting Houma, according to a draft plan presented to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Wednesday.
The annual spending plan is highly dependent on two sources of money: $367 million already set aside by the Legislature for levee and restoration projects from 2008 and 2009 state budget surpluses, and a less-sure $267 million the state expects to receive from “early restoration” payments by BP for damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill under the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment process.
The plan document points out that the BP money is still speculative; BP has so far committed to an early restoration payment of $1 billion, of which Louisiana is guaranteed only $100 million.
But Drue Banta, an attorney leading the state’s damage assessment team, said the state expects to receive between $400 million and $600 million of the early money. She said the state expects the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the federal Interior Department to spend the lion’s share of similar $100 million payments promised to each as federal trustees, and a large share of another $300 million that NOAA and Interior will get for state-proposed projects.
The state would get the larger share of the money because the spill caused more damage to natural resources in Louisiana, she said.
Indeed, the plan includes $270 million in BP money as part of its estimated fiscal year 2014 revenues.
The BP money would pay for 13 restoration projects that the state already has recommended for approval to a committee made up of the state and federal trustees and BP. Two of those projects already are awaiting approval by the committee in February, pending public hearings next week.
The annual plan proposes to finance 50 projects that will begin or continue construction in 2013, including 16 protection projects, 30 restoration projects and four infrastructure projects. Another nine projects would move into an initial planning phase, with two protection and 24 restoration projects beginning a comprehensive design phase.
The budget also includes $14.7 million to operate and maintain 89 projects already completed and to monitor the effectiveness 51 of the completed restoration projects.
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