M.D.E.Q. Plans to Use Litigation Money from BP Spill Effectively

Like so many others, recreational fisherman, Bo Smith, was affected by the oil spill. Smith, a Pascagoula resident, says, "Well, being on the water, going out to the islands, it affected everybody on the Coast, as far as using their summer time on the boats, on the water, fishing, going to the islands, everything."

Now the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (M.D.E.Q.) is taking three funding streams from BP and putting together a series of plans to restore the natural beauty of the Coast. Marc Wyatt of the M.D.E.Q. Restore Council says, "We have $356 million that’s been awarded to Mississippi, and to make sure that we’re good stewards of that money, we’re going to have a good plan set forth in distributing that grant and those monies."

M.D.E.Q. says the Mcert tool will help them make smart decisions in creating projects that complement others with different funding streams after the BP oil spill. Wyatt also says, "This is part of that effort. We want to hear from the community. We’ve got experts, and before we go forward in getting deep in any project, we want to hear from the community."

Throughout the week, M.D.E.Q. is hosting a series of summits for residents to attend to brainstorm ideas under three categories: land conservation, living resources, and water quality. It’s a chance for the public to chip in, make comments, or just learn.

Smith closes, "This is my first meeting. I’m here just to learn, see what’s going on, just see what the improvements are and what the projected projects are. Hopefully it’s all positive. I think it will be and we can all get back to a normal state."