by William Rabb

It's being called the biggest infusion of non-tax dollars ever bestowed on Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

New federal rules released this week could mean $60 million to $316 million for the two counties for economic and environmental restoration as a result of massive fines paid by BP and other companies involved in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf.

And that's just the money expected from one part of a three-pronged mechanism that could fund projects in the region for the next two decades, local and federal officials said.

Under a complex formula nearly finalized by the U.S. Treasury Department, 80 percent of the fines paid by BP and others responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster will go to into a trust fund. The total fines could range from $6 billion to as much as $21 billion, according to news reports and federal estimates. Of the trust fund, 35 percent will go directly to states and counties affected by the oil that stained beaches and fouled waterways.

For Escambia County, it works out to about $10.5 million for every $1 billion in fines paid, or just over 1 percent, said Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson.

If BP and others are ordered to pay, say, $10 billion, it could amount to about $105 million for Escambia, the Florida county that was most affected by the oil.

Escambia, where more than 3 million pounds of oil and tarballs have been collected since the spill, will receive roughly 25 percent of the funds going to the hardest-hit Florida counties. Santa Rosa will take home about 10 percent, and Okaloosa will get about 15 percent under the formula.

To access the funds, the counties will have to apply to the Treasury Department for grants and must submit detailed, multi-year plans on how the money will be spent.

“The takeaway is that now we can begin the planning process,” said Robinson, chairman of the consortium of 23 Florida counties affected by the oil spill. “We couldn't do anything until we knew what the rules were.”

Local officials and some members of Florida's Congressional delegation have complained recently that the Treasury was taking too long to finalize the rules. Robinson testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on the issue, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Melbourne), urged the executive branch to get on with the task.

“You couldn’t spend the BP oil fines until we had these rules,” Nelson said this week. “Now that we have them, we need to get the money flowing to the affected communities.”

The regulations were required by the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act, known as the RESTORE Act, passed by Congress in 2012. The “final interim regulations” are available for review at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/08/15/2014-19324/gulf-coast-restoration-trust-fund.

A 30-day public comment period on the plan will close Sept. 15. That doesn't leave much time for revisions, though: The final rules will kick in by Oct. 15, according to the Treasury Department. An earlier draft of the proposed rules, released a year ago, drew more than 1,200 comments.

The actual amount of funding is far from final. Although TransOcean Ltd., which operated the doomed rig, already has paid $1 billion in civil fines, federal courts have yet to decide on the amount BP must pay to the U.S. Treasury.

The courts may not rule until early next year.

The direct funding to the counties would have to be spent to restore ecosystems, including beaches, wetlands and estuaries, as well as to improve the local economy with workforce training and job creation, according to the regulations and the law.

Robinson would not say what types of projects he would like to see in Escambia County, but mentioned that past projects of a similar nature include Project Greenshores habitat restoration in Pensacola Bay; sewer and stormwater improvements in the Ferry Pass area of Pensacola; and airport improvements to attract an aerospace maintenance and repair facility.

A county committee has been set up to establish a process to vet ideas for the money. They next meet from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 8 in the Escambia County Central office Complex, 3363 W. Park Place Room 104.

The county already may apply for the $10 million it's due from the fines paid by TransOcean, officials said.

“I would hope the county would go ahead and apply for that, and not wait for the bigger BP amount, because we all know that BP will probably appeal, and it could drag on for years,” said Jessica Koelsch, Florida policy specialist with the National Wildlife Federation.

It's also not too early for local organizations to start putting together plans for subgrants they may want to request from the county, she said. The funding is unprecedented and competition for it could be fierce.

Koelsch would like to see the county concentrate on fundamental issues, such as restoring water quality and estuaries, which will benefit other factors in the community, including tourism and fishing. She also hopes Florida will develop a comprehensive plan for the entire coastal region, instead of taking a piecemeal approach.

“If all of this money goes into high-rises and convention centers, I'll be really disappointed,” Koelsch said.

The regulations released this week make several changes to the 2013 proposal, including allowing more funding for planning purposes and public input, which Nelson pushed for in meetings last month, his staff said. The final interim regulations also clarify and cap local administrative costs at 3 percent, but also allow counties to revise project plans over time and implement them incrementally.

Escambia County has earned more than $70 million from oil-spill money channeled through the Natural Resources Damages Assessment program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

In addition to the 35 percent of the RESTORE Act trust fund that will go directly to counties, known as Component One, two other components could also affect the area. Both will be administered by a council comprised of officials from the states affected and from federal agencies.

Some 30 percent of the trust fund money will be used to develop a comprehensive plan for the affected Gulf Coast area, and another 30 percent will go to the states affected, in keeping with the plan. The final 5 percent will be used for monitoring activities and research centers, which Robinson said would likely result in some research grants for the University of West Florida.

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