Escambia, Santa Rosa among ‘Power 5’ setting pace of Restore Act funding

Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have proven more adept than most Florida counties and many of their Gulf Coast neighbors at securing and effectively utilizing federal Restore Act funding for environmental projects.

That is the finding of a recent study conducted by TRPR, a Washington D.C.-based consulting firm that recently released what it calls a "Halftime report" focused on tracking money allocated to Gulf Coast states, counties and parishes impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill through fines assessed against BP and other contributors to the spill.

The report has been published, according to authors Tim and Teague Richardson, 12 years after the Restore Act was passed and eight years before the final environmental damages penalty payment is scheduled to be made in 2031. Researchers focused much of their attention on Restore Act Bucket 1 performances of counties in Florida and parishes in Louisiana.

"That is the one that stood out as problematic," said Tim Richardson. "Bucket one was supposed to be the easiest one to access and it has been the hardest."

Bucket, or Pot, 1 funding is referred to as direct component funding and has been administered through the U.S. Department of the Treasury since 2016. In theory, the process in Florida requires counties to identify a project, draw up a proposal and apply for funding.

"It should be that simple, but there are too many oversight obstacles," Tim Richardson said. "There is a bureaucratic process that has slowed everything down and we're losing money to inflation."

The process is apparently complicated enough that, as of October, four eligible counties in Florida and nine parishes in Louisiana had failed to gain approval for a single Bucket 1 appropriation.

'Power 5' counties lead the way

In contrast, the study identifies five Florida Panhandle counties, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton and Bay, as the Power 5. Officials there have succeeded where others across the state and region have struggled to pull down direct component dollars.

Also as of October, Escambia County had $15.8 million on hand with which to pay for projects approved by Treasury, which ranks it third in the state behind neighboring Okaloosa and Bay counties, and eighth across the Gulf Coast in that category, the report said.

Santa Rosa lags behind with just $1.9 million in the bank, the study found, but with good reason. The county has less money on hand because it has allocated 88% of the funds it has brought in. That gives the county "the best record among Florida counties."

"Santa Rosa County has gained Restore Act allocation funding approval the fastest," the report said, noting that a county's receiving allocation approval does not mean money has yet arrived.

Escambia County has allocated 59% of its funding, the study found.

Santa Rosa has also been an overachiever where it comes to leveraging the Restore Act money it has received. It has used BP dollars more successfully than any other county in the state to pull in grant money from other sources, according to the report.

"With around $20 million, they have leverage higher than the next three counties combined," said Teague Richardson, TRPR's data collector.

Leverage is important, he said, because the more that comes in for projects the less that has to come out of county general revenues.

Santa Rosa accomplishing multi-year plan goals

Santa Rosa County, like its counterpart counties, secured its initial Restore Act funding by gaining approval of a multi-year implementation plan that brought in almost $29 million. Those funds will be distributed over 15 years, through 2031.

With that funding, the county has so far awarded eight of 12 proposed projects, five of which are active and three of which have been closed. Those closed include the Yellow River Marsh State Park restoration that allowed for important clean up work that will help sustain a rare ecosystem, a physical renovation along the Blackwater Heritage State Trail and completion of plans for a county Discovery Center.

Two of the active projects could be completed this year. One will finish ongoing paving of about five miles of dirt road to reduce the amount of sediment entering local waters. The second is an oyster habitat project for which some 19 tons of oyster shells have been collected.

The county is also using the funding to bring down grants for other projects, like those conducted by its "sub-award" partners, including Gulf Breeze and Milton. Both cities have received funding to initiate wastewater treatment plant upgrades, and the city of Gulf Breeze has embarked on an offshoot plan to remove every septic tank within the city and connect all residents to sewer.

Funding has also been provided to assist efforts to end the practice of pumping treated wastewater effluent into Santa Rosa Sound at Navarre Beach.

Naisy Dolar, Santa Rosa County's grant's administrator and Restore Act guru, said she stepped into what was basically a new position when she agreed to head her county's grant application team.

"From the beginning we knew we needed to be a dedicated staff focused on a strong strategy to make use of the funds available," she said.

She said county administrators were open from the get go to allowing the Restore Act team to lead the way in submitting applications, and the team learned to fine tune its methodology with each new round of submissions.

The counties the TRPR identified as the Power 5 collaborated in "sharing lessons learned" to help one another streamline the application process "so that the growing pains would happen faster," Dolar said.

"We became very successful at submitting thorough applications to meet the criteria of the federal guidelines," she said.

Dolar said everyone involved in vetting Restore Act projects realized how important it was to spend wisely.

"We were seeking funding for legacy transformational projects that truly would make an environmental impact," she said. "Once we had that in mind we went for projects like moving (wastewater) effluent out of Santa Rosa Sound, things we couldn't do before, efforts we otherwise might not be able to find funding for."

Escambia County investing BP fine money wisely

Escambia County has successfully put Restore Act funds to use in securing more money as well. One project it has embarked upon, a $25.8 million project in the Beach Haven subdivision, has obtained commitments from five different funding sources and will deploy $12 million in local option sales tax funds.

The project, Phase 2 of a community improvement endeavor, is sprucing up aging neighborhoods by putting in curbs and gutters. The subdivision was built in a wetland and residents have been required to rely on often submerged septic tanks. The septic tanks have historically leaked into Jones Creek and the project is designed to remove ground water from yards and prevent the seepage from happening.

Timothy Day, Escambia County's Restore coordinator, said he was fortunate at the time the Restore Act money became available to have a staff well versed in competing for regional grants and working through required auditing processes.

"Part of the challenge is you have to have staff with at least some experience," he said. "We had staff that had a working knowledge to get things through."

Day agreed Escambia County had been "pretty effective at accessing many of the forms of Restore Act funding" and leveraging the $38.8 million it received to deploy its multi-year implementation plan.

"We definitely look for opportunities,. We don't always use Bucket 1 funds, but we have leveraged it to get (other funds released under the Restore Act).

He said six grant sources have provided funding for what will be a $35 million NAS Pensacola Living Shoreline project.

"That's our best example of cobbling together a partnership," he said. "In doing so, very little taxpayer dollars are being invested."

There are challenges, though, to such partnerships, he said. Each partner wants to see their funds spent on specific aspects of any given project.

"It wouldn't work on a $200,000 project," he said. "Not enough juice from the squeeze."

Researchers sought out freshwater inflow projects

Tim Richardson said the primary reason TRPR began its Restore Act fund analysis with Florida is due to the fact the state has done the most with the money it has received from Deepwater Horizon fines to invest in "freshwater inflow projects" and the most to establish budget relieving projects that don't rely on taxpayer dollars.

"Santa Rosa, Escambia and the rest of the Power 5 have been doing best on freshwater inflow projects," he said.

Freshwater inflows are crucial to the health of coastal ecosystems. They allow for an environment in which juvenile fish and shrimp can thrive and provide nutrients and phytoplankton that are key to maintaining estuarine populations. Healthy inflows also push pollutants out of bays and bayous.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida Panhandle counties have best utilized BP oil spill fines