In 2018, the Deepwater Horizon Trustees continued another year of restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. Annual reports on all of the Trustees’ work, and an annual financial summary are now available. We provide these reports each year to help stakeholders and communities stay up to date on our work.

Accessing Annual Activity and Project Reports

The 2018 annual reports include new information on the Trustees’ planning activities and project implementation. They show each activity’s status as of December 31, 2018. In total, there are 171 reports available, which include 139 approved restoration

The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group released the Open Ocean Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy (PDF, 18 pg.), a document describing processes to help us fine-tune our restoration work, and promote effective and efficient use of restoration funding.

The strategy lays out processes to assist with identifying and prioritizing information gaps and data needed to successfully plan, implement, evaluate, and adaptively manage Open Ocean restoration. It also describes how we will fill those gaps and coordinate activities with other Trustee Implementation Groups and science and

These public engagement opportunities will happen before the Trustee Council’s public meetings on June 5 and 6.

The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group is planning to hold public engagement opportunities on June 4, 2019, the day before the Trustee Council’s June 5 workshop and June 6 public meeting in Pensacola, Florida. Please save the date for June 4 starting in the afternoon.

The first engagement opportunity will be held the afternoon of June 4 at Pensacola City Hall to present the recently released Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy. We’ll also ask for input from attendees

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group released a draft supplemental restoration plan (PDF, 85 pg) proposing changes to the Lake Charles Science Center and Educational Complex project, previously approved in the July 2018 Final Restoration Plan #2. If approved, the project site would be updated to co-locate the future science center with the Lake Charles Children’s Museum at the planned Port Wonder Facility, a future education and recreation development.

The Trustees notified the public of the considered changes in October 2018 and are soliciting public comment on the draft supplemental

The Deepwater Horizon Trustees are committed to providing annual reports to the public to show our restoration progress, as well as how we’re utilizing Natural Resource Damage Assessment settlement funds. We also hold annual meetings to provide the public additional opportunities to engage with the Trustees and hear about our progress.

Our anticipated release for the annual reports is the end of May 2019. Following the release of the reports, the Trustee Council will hold our fourth annual public meeting on June 6, 2019, and our second

The Florida Trustee Implementation Group is drafting a restoration plan for the third phase of the Florida Coastal Access Project to address natural resource injuries from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Florida Coastal Access Project addresses a portion of the lost recreational use in Florida. Both the first phase, described the Phase V Early Restoration Plan, and the second phase, described in the Phase V.2 Restoration Plan, included acquisition and/or enhancement of recreational amenities at five coastal parcels in the Florida Panhandle. Funding for this phase of the Florida Coastal

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group has initiated developing the Draft Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment #3.1: Barataria Basin Marsh Creation (Draft Restoration Plan #3.1). This restoration plan will tier from the Strategic Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment for Barataria Basin, Louisiana (Barataria Basin Strategic Restoration Plan), pursuant to the Deepwater Horizon Trustees Programmatic Restoration Plan.

The Trustees initially began this restoration planning effort in April 2017 with the announcement of the intent to draft the Barataria Basin Strategic Restoration

The Florida Trustee Implementation Group approved its Final Restoration Plan 1 (PDF, 390 pg.) which selects twenty-three projects at a total estimated cost of $61 million. The final plan is consistent with the Trustees’ Programmatic Restoration Plan and selects projects for restoring natural resources and services injured or lost in Florida as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

These projects will help restore and benefit wetlands, coastal, and nearshore habitats on federally managed lands; improve water quality and hydrology by reducing sources of pollution and restoring more

The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group has approved its Final Restoration Plan 1 and Environmental Assessment: Birds and Sturgeon (PDF, 163 pg) which selects three projects at a total estimated cost of $16 million. These projects are intended to partially compensate the public for injuries caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to birds and sturgeon, consistent with the Trustees’ Programmatic Restoration Plan. Two projects include restoration activities for injured migratory bird species that winter in the Gulf of Mexico, but nest in northern latitudes. The Trustees have determined

The Florida Trustee Implementation Group held a public meeting on October 2, 2018 and a public webinar on December 13, 2018 to present the Draft Restoration Plan 1 and Environmental Assessment. Both the public meeting and webinar included informal open houses where participants could ask questions, and formal public meeting periods where participants could submit comments on the draft plan. During the webinar, held after Hurricane Michael, the Trustees presented the draft plan and its preferred projects, and also discussed impacts of the hurricane on the areas where those projects are located