Miss. Gets $28 Million for Coastal Restoration Projects

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi will spend a $28 million grant on three environmental restoration projects along the Gulf Coast.

Gov. Phil Bryant says the money is coming from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Environmental Benefit Fund. It was created in 2013 as part of a settlement the U.S Justice Department reached with BP and Transocean to resolve criminal charges against the companies in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Department of Environmental Quality says more than $21 million will be used for marsh creation and restoration at St. Louis Bay, Back Bay of Biloxi, and the Pascagoula/Escatawpa system.

More than $4 million will be spent for a two-year project to gather information about red snapper and other reef fish, and $2.6 million will be spent on management of invasive species.