CHNEP awarded $500K for Deepwater Horizon NRDA project

The Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership (CHNEP) recently was awarded the first Deepwater Horizon oil spill NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) project award in Southwest Florida. The project was approved for funding by the Florida Trustee Implementation Group (FL TIG) in the Final Restoration Plan 1 and Environmental Assessment (RP1/EA) finalized in March.

The CHNEP submitted the proposed project for the funding in collaboration with the South Florida Water Management District, which coordinates the Charlotte Harbor Flatwoods Initiative (CHFI) - the larger hydrological restoration effort that this project will support. The FL TIG then selected the Lower Charlotte Harbor Flatwoods Hydrologic Restoration Planning Project as one of the 23 preferred projects in the RP1/EA the first NRDA project in Southwest Florida. The CHNEP has entered into a funding agreement to accept the funds and now is in the procurement process to initiate the project.

Development, including the construction of major roadways such as US 41 and Interstate 75, has altered the historic sheet flow from the Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area (WMA) through the Yucca Pens Unit WMA down to the tidal creeks and into the Charlotte Harbor and Caloosahatchee estuaries.

Visit the Charlotte Harbor Flatwoods Initiative page on the Water Atlas »